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American Morning
Document Shredding Can Be a Way of Life
Aired January 25, 2002 - 08:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Since the collapse of Enron, we keep hearing about shredding, shredding and more shredding. I got a shredder, Paula wants a shredder. I don't use my shredder just to make a living, I do it to feel important.
However, believe it or not, there are actually people out there whose occupation is to shred paper, and they're saying scandals like this one are a big boost to their business.
CNN's Jeanne Moos is going to shred some light on the subject.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a document's point of view, it's execution by guillotine. Only these guillotines come in all sizes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then it goes into the shredder that way.
MOOS: And the shreds come in all sizes as well. The cost goes up as the size goes down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what the CIA and the FBI would use, for shredding their documents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, this is...
MOOS (on camera): This is Enron-sized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
MOOS (voice-over): The shreds of evidence in the Enron debacle add to the sinister image of shredding. So do movies, from "Boiler Room" to the comedy "Dick," a farcical view of the Nixon White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who the hell are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why were they shredding all that paper?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paper-mache is a hobby of mine.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MOOS: Shredding is no hobby for Nick Walsh. His company, Mobile Shredding, makes house calls to clients who want their documents cut up on site. As an auto dealer once told him --
NICK WALSH, MOBILE SHREDDING CORP.: Nick, I went into work early, and my competition was in my dumpster.
MOOS: If you're looking for a shredder, Ed Klumpp's company, Ecco, sells all kinds.
(on camera): The paper looks sort of desperate as it goes down (ph).
(voice-over): Some even come with accessories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In case you're in an embassy and the power is cut by the enemy.
MOOS (on camera): The old-fashioned way. We churn it.
(voice-over): All this shredding got us wondering how they make shredded wheat, but the cereal maker told us that's proprietary information, the kind of corporate info they shred.
Hay shredders were what inspired the Germans to develop paper shredders like this one in the late 1930's.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a collector's item.
MOOS: This sea of shreds is what is generated by the largest shredder in the North Eastern United States.
(on camera): How much can this thing chew up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 20 tons an hour.
MOOS: And what is that equivalent to?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a tractor trailer load of bales.
MOOS (voice-over): American Document Security teamed up with an outfit called All Shredding to pick up documents from, for instance Wall Street firms, and bring them to Brooklyn to chop up. What's shredded is recycled.
(on camera): This could become toilet tissue?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, next week.
MOOS (voice-over): Corporate secrets they are safe when they are on a roll, which brings us to the Xeroxed posterior joke on the "Daily Show," inspired by Enron's shredding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, "DAILY SHOW": So far, they have turned up some surprising evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: Talk about surprising, a man once hired Mobile Shredding to shred his pornography.
WALSH: He got religion, and he wanted to get rid of all his whole house full of pornography.
MOOS: And Ed Klumpp's company gets bittersweet walk-ins.
ED KLUMPP, ECCO BUSINESS SYSTEMS: People with love letters, people that are 90 years old, and want to come in and shred their love letters. We occasionally allow people to come to our showroom and just do that for for free, because it gives them peace of mind.
MOOS: It's enough to make you -- shred a tear.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, Jeanne, don't do that to yourself.
COOPER: I've shredded pictures. Once you get a shredder, you cannot stop shredding things. I shred menus, I shred everything.
ZAHN: Anderson is so into this. He's gotten me inspired to buy a shredder this weekend. Now he's not telling me to buy the seven speed...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: There are three things that have changed my life in the last year. George Foreman Grill, TiVo, and a shredder.
ZAHN: Now, where is "American Morning" in your life? Come on, Anderson, that should be number one on the list.
COOPER: All right.
ZAHN: All right. You'll give me my little shredding instructions when I get the machine.
COOPER: Happily.
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