ProShred Arizona’s TreeSaver environmental certificate
By Max Lancaster
Recycling paper is one of the best ways to help the environment on a daily basis. It helps save trees, water and other forms of energy wasted during the paper production process. However, many companies don’t know how much waste they are preventing by disposing of their paper products in an environmentally friendly way.
ProShred Arizona, an onsite document shredding service in Tempe, is showing customers how they are helping the environment through their TreeSaver Environmental Certificate. ProShred Arizona recycles 100 percent of the paper they shred. The TreeSaver Certificate is a detailed report that shows how many trees, water and energy were saved based upon the amount of paper a company shredded.
In the past three years ProShred Arizona completed 10,000 certificates to clients across the Valley. During that time ProShred Arizona has recycled 9.36 million pounds of paper, which has saved 79,554 trees, 32.76 million gallons of water, 1.77 million gallons of oil, 22.46 million kilowatts of energy per hour, and 468,007 cubic yards of landfill space. ProShred Arizona owners, Joe and Patty Caradonna, were impressed by ProShred’s TreeSaver Certificate when they franchised their own location in 2012.
“We’re proud of the certificate because we are able to see our environmental impact right away,” Patty said.
According to Joe, many companies and municipalities are unaware of the certificate when they first work with ProShred Arizona, but are excited to see the positive effects of recycling their shredded paper.
“The report surprises a lot of people because you don’t know the impact you are having until you see the math in front of you,” Joe said. “It makes them more conscious of their paper use because they can see how many trees they saved or how much water or energy they conserve when they recycle.”
Paper makes up 27 percent of municipal solid waste, according to an Environmental Protection Agency 2012 report, and paper mills can use millions of gallons of water per day for production. The high number of trees, water and electricity used to make new paper means that recycling even half of your used paper can make a huge difference.
The main mission of the TreeSaver certificate is to make ProShred Arizona’s customers more aware and excited about the prospect of recycling. Joe and Patty believe the certificates are succeeding. According to Joe, the more companies have received TreeSaver Certificates, the more enthusiastic they have become about recycling their paper products.
“Returning customers have become really aware of what we are doing and started implementing things differently,” Joe said. “Maybe they shred an envelope instead of throwing it in the trash so it doesn’t wind up in a landfill.”
Patty agreed, stating that their clients have been asking for reports more frequently.
“Our clients want to see how they are impacting the environment and they get really excited when they see improvement,” Patty said. “Our scheduled clients want to get reports on a weekly or monthly basis now so they can keep improving.”
For more information on how you can use ProShred Arizona’s secure shredding services to positively impact your local environment visit them at proshred.com/greater-phoenix.
Max Lancaster is a freelance writer based in Phoenix. He graduated from the University of Arizona School of Journalism in 2015.
