About the author: Gianmarco Lorenzi is MD of Cleardata, a group company of Metrofile Holdings

Since the introduction of the personal computer in the early 1970s, many predicted that paper would soon become obsolete, as electronic devices became the chosen medium for all communications and transactions.

However, globally, businesses are actually generating more paper than ever before, with those operating in the financial, healthcare and manufacturing sectors alone producing over 4.5 trillion pages of hard-copy annually.

Furthermore, research from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reveals that total paper consumption is expected to rise from a current 400 million tons to between 450 million and 500 million tons by 2020.

Ironically, one of the major contributors to the increase in paper usage are technological advances: e-mail alone has increased the global use of paper by 40%*; the Internet has made it so easy to find vast amounts of information, which is often printed out to share or keep; and the editing of documents is now simple – compared with the days of the typewriter – which are then printed out time and time again as updates or corrections are required.

Additionally, most business processes or interactions are still heavily paper-driven as paper-based documents simply carry more authority; once something is committed to paper, it is deemed final and it cannot be modified. There is also the issue of the requirement of permanent records according to legislation, such as the New Companies Act and Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, which all stipulate the storage and management of original records for certain periods of time.

In light of the above increase in paper usage, South African businesses need to ensure they are effectively safeguarding against unwanted company documents falling into the wrong hands.

With the introduction of data protection legislation, such as the soon-to-be-implemented Protection of Personal Information Bill, it is crucial that local companies implement effective information destruction practices, such as shredding, in order to comply with this legislation. Shredding remains the most effective way for businesses to safeguard against document reconstitution.

With paper in varying forms still playing an integral role in our daily lives, it seems the format is here to stay and the paperless society remains a distant realisation of a fully-digital future.

* According to Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper, authors of The Myth of the Paperless Office