When Holland resident Willie Geiser graduated from Wilmington College, he did not set out to enter the document destruction industry.

With a degree in health and physical education, Mr. Geiser had plans to become a teacher. However, unable to find a teaching position near his hometown of Orrville, Ohio, he took a job in a factory.

He later entered the fields of sales and business administration, before accepting a job in recycling. “I enjoyed it [recycling] and decided to stay in the field,” he said.

Mr. Geiser relocated to the Toledo area in 1990 as the executive director of the Recycling Stations, two non-profit, drop-off recycling centers. When they closed two years later, Mr. Geiser began his own recycling business. But as the industry changed, so did his company, Allshred Services.

The president and CEO saw an opportunity to merge recycling with the growing field of document destruction. Today, the company serves businesses in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan,
Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They shred about 1.2 million pounds of paper documents monthly.

“Since day one, we have shredded 85,479,034 pounds of paper,” said Mr. Geiser, adding that by next fall they will hit a milestone of 100 million pounds. Paper that has been shredded does not
end up in a landfill. The company bales the paper into tight bundles which are loaded onto tractor trailers.

The company takes the paper to its Wisconsin tissue mill, where the material is placed into a pulp machine and recycled into paper towels, toilet paper and napkins.

Because so many different colors and types of paper are shredded at any given time, the paper can not be recycled into white paper, explained Staci Bailey, sales manager.

The company shreds a variety of documents for healthcare agencies and financial institutions that must comply with federal regulations. They also shred bids, invoices, R & D reports, canceled
and blank checks, credit card numbers, legal contracts, tax records, blueprints and correspondence.

In addition to destroying documents, the company shreds other items including microfilm, CD-rom diskettes, flash drives, hard drives, molds, counterfeit clothing, pill bottles, contraband, computer reel tapes and labels.

Ms. Bailey pointed out that Allshred Services, which holds AAA certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), follows specific security procedures.

Allshred Services has a fleet of 15 trucks to pick up documents and other materials in a six-state area. Drivers are tracked using GPS technology and two-way communication systems, she explained.

Drivers wear designated uniforms and carry badges to identify themselves to the customer. After picking up material, they place it in a locked container in the truck and travel back to the Maumee office.

To enter the 46,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, the driver must pass through a security gate. When the truck is
backed into the bay, workers monitored by security cameras, unload material into conveyors which carry it to the shredding
machines. 

Paper documents from a variety of businesses are mixed together in the hopper and tumble along a conveyor belt before going through the first of two shredder.

If any non-paper items become mixed in, the machine shuts down and a warning sounds. Employees sift through the debris finding soda cans or other items. After emptying the nonconforming
debris, they reset the shredder. 

After leaving the first shredder, the paper moves along another conveyor system before being dropped into a second shredder. It is then baled for delivery to the paper mill.

For those customers who want documents shredded on their premises, Allshred has a specially-designed mobile shredding truck.

“Ninety-nine percent of our customers want us to bring the documents back to our shredding plant,” said Ms. Bailey, “but we do offer the mobile shredding service for those who want to
watch it in their parking lots.”

The shredded paper is then brought back to Allshred’s plant for recycling.

Although paper products can be recycled, the same can not be said of other items, said Ms. Bailey.

Electronic items are placed in a separate shredder designed to destroy the items. The material is then compacted and readied for delivery to a landfill.

Ms. Bailey said the shredding process is not difficult. “It’s just detailed.” 

For material that can be recycled, Allshred Services provides customers with an environmental savings report. The report outlines the amount of material the firm picked up and shredded and gives a breakdown of the environmental benefits produced by the shredding program.

Ms. Bailey said an increasing number of businesses are “going green” and like to see the report, which can be generated
monthly, quarterly or annually.

The report details the number of trees saved, gallons of water and kilowatts of electricity conserved, pounds of air pollution prevented and landfill space not used.

Ms. Bailey said that while the bulk of the firm’s business is corporate, Allshred
Services also offers document destruction to area residents. “We entertain drop offs for a nominal fee all the time,” she added.

She noted that this is one way the company can show its commitment to the community.

“We take a lot of pride in servicing the people of the Toledo area. We want to stay tied to the local community,” Ms. Bailey said.

That community involvement includes memberships in the Holland-
Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Toledo Chamber of Commerce.

The company plans to participate in the Community Ties Expo on January 26, at Springfield High School.

Ms. Bailey said Mr. Geiser and his wife Karen are committed to the community and Springfield Schools. At the middle school, they sponsor the Pillars of Character program.

Mrs. Geiser also is actively involved in Springfield Schools where their two younger children, Ryan, 12, and Nikki, 10, are students at the middle school and Holloway Elementary.

Mr. Geiser looks forward to the future and continuing to expand his business, which recently was named as one of the Inc. 5,000 fastest growing companies in the United States. Sales this year are
expected to be $4 million.

In 2005, Mr. Geiser also was named as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the business service category.

“We are the largest independently owned shredding company in the U.S.” he said, adding, “I think we’re one of Toledo’s best kept secrets.”

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