Category Archives: Recycling

Data Retention Compliance: Document Shredding

You may be responsible for your company’s document retention and destruction. Here you will learn about data retention compliance and document shredding services.

To help comply with document retention and privacy laws and regulations, you may contract with a vendor specializing in document destruction, such as document shredding service Boston.

Data Retention Compliance

There are federal, state, local, and international data retention and privacy laws and regulations, including HIPAA’s PHI or personal health information, GLBA’s and SOX’s financial records, FACTA’s PII or consumer personally identifiable information, European Union’s GDPR, industry-specific, and company-wide regulations.

Your business may have internal, confidential, and secret data. The type of data to be destroyed dictates the level of security needed in data destruction. You may need to follow one of DIN’s seven shredding security standards. DIN P-4 through P-6 are FACTA compliant, and P-7 is NSA top-secret compliant. Shredders may cut papers using strip-cut, particle-cut, cross-cut, and pierce-and-tear methods, each providing a different level of security.

Document Shredding Services

Document destruction vendors may provide on-site or off-site shredding services. Typically, a mobile GPS-tracked, camera-equipped document shredding truck comes to your location during an on-site service. The driver securely transports your documents to the truck and stays on site while your documents are being shredded inside the truck’s industrial paper shredder.

For off-site shredding, the driver securely loads your documents onto the truck and takes them to a facility to be shredded. A chain of custody for transporting, storing, and shredding is documented.

A Certificate of Destruction is provided after shredding completion. A CoD provides documentation for audits and may include your business contact, company name, address, date, time, location, and type of shredding.

The vendor may charge you based on a fee per box, per shredding bin, per hour on-site, or per pound, plus administrative charges.

Contracting with a licensed, bonded, insured, and NAID AAA-certified vendor would be good. NAID sets industry standards for information destruction and is part of the International Secure Information Governance & Management Association.

Vendors may create bales of shreds and take them to a paper mill recycling plant for disposal.

Bioengineering

I’m glad to have stumbled upon this photo posted by DPWH Secretary Mark Villar on his Facebook page in July. The photo showed a segment of Tarlac Pangasinan La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

According to Sec. Villar, coco net, and vetiver grass are being utilized in the 11-km segment of TPLEX to prevent soil erosion. The photo also carries hashtags #BuildBuildBuild and #Bioengineering.

DPWH Sec. Mark Villar photo

According to Wikipedia, bioengineering means the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products.

Sun-dried coconut halves

In 2012, we were able to observe how coco nets are developed in Las Piñas. The intricate process includes, drying up coconut halves; decorticating the husks; twining the fibers; finally weaving the net.

The tour at the green social enterprises in Las Piñas was made possible by the Villar Foundation.

Decorticating machine separates coco fibers from coconut husk

Twining and weaving nets from coconut husks are just one of the social enterprises of the foundation. The other livelihood projects include handloom weaving, house waste composting, vermin composting, producing hollow blocks from trash, and crafting baskets from water hyacinths.

Worker separates fiber for twining

The development of these livelihood projects was an offshoot of an endeavor to clean and revive the Las Pinas-Zapote River.

The husks not thrown on the river were left on the sidewalks, and the city had to spend more to haul the garbage. Trash collectors failed to collect sacks of coconut husk, so they end up polluting the river.

Twining the coconut fibers to create ropes

Mrs. (now Senator) Cynthia Villar, managing director of the Villar Foundation, met with experts from the Bicol University for the Coco Coir technology; to address the growing problem with uncollected coconut husks.

Twines are weaved in the loom to create nets

Dr. Justino Arboleda, an agricultural engineer, designed the machinery to make the coco-net. Coco Coir Enterprise utilizes coconut husk and converts them into a coco net.

Finished coco nets are being used for slope protection and control soil erosion. Las Piñas City and private developers use coco nets in various projects.

Congratulations Sec. Villar, for implementing the #bioengineering techniques to assist in the #BuildBuildBuild program of the government. This sure saves a lot of government fundings.

The Solar Solution

The rainy season is here and although we don’t want the typhoons (and since we can never stop them), it are to be expected. When strong typhoons hit, the living suffers the consequences. We get damaged buildings, infrastructures, farmlands, and homes. We experience floods in the cities. And worse, we lose water and energy supply.

We can never prevent a typhoon from coming, but we can always prevent a blackout from happening. How? Through using solar energy.

Why Should We Consider Investing in Solar Energy?

How To Use Solar Energy?

Converting the power of the sun as energy is made possible by using photovoltaic solar panels.

The Misconceptions

In a household, the first thing that comes in mind when we talk about solar energy is: it’s expensive and we don’t have a huge space to put the solar panels on.

Yes, solar panels can be a huge expense in the beginning but it is a good investment that will help you save in the years to come. Plus, since it is gaining popularity to a number of people, there are already cheaper options available.

You don’t need to have a farm to put your solar panels on. Installing them on your roof is the best place where you can put them.

And the myth that solar panels will be useless during the rainy season or at night because there is “no sun” is just not true. Solar panels can also store produced yet unused energy for later use.

The Benefits

Besides being a clean and green source of energy, your source of power is also unlimited, unlike the traditional electricity which uses fossil fuels, coals, or natural gas.

Having one in your own household lets you in control of your own bills and your own energy usage. This will also result in less electricity loss since your power need not be exported from big power plants to several houses. Your energy will come directly from your solar panels into your house.

Alternative Energy Sources in the Philippines

Did you know that there exist housing options in the country that offers solar-powered homes in a solar-powered subdivision? And it is a low-cost home that people can actually afford! Visit the site of Imperial Homes Corporation to know more about it.

Recently, Emma Imperial, the Group Chair and CEO of Imperial Homes had a drink ‘On the House’ where she talked about how she got interested in the solar power business, how she started, and maybe also shared a secret tip for the aspiring entrepreneurs from the late Henry Sy himself. Check out their discussion to discover how the mind of a successful salesperson works.

Besides solar energy, there are several other sources for renewable energy in the country. Since the Philippines is an archipelago with a tropical climate, it has the capacity of generating energy from its natural resources.

  • Hydroelectric Power – This is sourcing the energy from a moving body of water such as through dams or waterfalls. Several hydroelectric power plants already exist in our country giving power to 13 provinces.
  • Geothermal Power – This makes use of the heat from underneath the Earth and converts it to energy. Seven provinces make use of this as their primary energy source.
  • Wind Energy – Strong wind current can also give off energy. There are already four operation wind power plants in the Philippines.
  • Biomass Energy – This is using natural resources such as rice husks, coconut husks in boiling water, which later on will produce steam that will drive the generator. Metro Manila and five other provinces in the Philippines have biomass power plants.

The Philippines has long been using renewable energy in some areas but it is only recently that it gets the attention and recognition it deserves. What’s important now is to know, understand, and to spread out the information that we do have options when it comes to sourcing energies. And these alternatives we have are also environmental friendly.

‘On the House’ is a series by Lamudi where big bosses do small talks. Catch them on YouTube, or listen to their podcasts on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and learn more about life and the likes.