Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
Off-site shredding in NH: we pick up, we shred in Tewksbury
Book a pickup, we confirm your zone, and our driver loads your sealed boxes and brings them to our Tewksbury office to be shredded and recycled. You pay the same shredding rate as drop-off plus one transportation fee, and you get a Certificate of Destruction for the job.
Zone 1 pickup $129.95. Same 99¢ per pound shredding rate. Certificate of Destruction on every job.
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+
- HIPAA BAA on request
Quick answer
Off-site shredding from New Hampshire Document Shredding means we pick up your boxes in New Hampshire and shred them at our office at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA. You pay the drop-off shredding rate (99 cents a pound, or $15 per small box and $20 per banker’s box at 10 or more), a transportation fee of $129.95 for Zone 1, $159.95 for Zone 2 or $199.95 for Zone 3, and $34.90 in per-job fees. Ten banker’s boxes from a Zone 1 town such as Salem come to $364.85, and every job gets a Certificate of Destruction, the same paperwork behind all of our document shredding.
How off-site shredding pickup works in New Hampshire
Off-site means the shredding happens somewhere other than your building. In our case that somewhere is one place: our office on Main Street in Tewksbury, a short drive south of the New Hampshire line. There is no shredder on wheels idling in your parking lot. Our driver picks up, and the shredding happens at 1215 Main Street.
That is a deliberate choice. Paper that stays in locked handling and goes through one shredder, in one building, is easier to account for. It is also why our pickup price is a flat zone fee rather than a truck-time charge.
You do not have to sign a long-term contract. Most of our New Hampshire pickups are one-off jobs: a cleanout, a year-end purge, a closed practice. Some offices book a pickup every few months on their own schedule.
- Book online or call. Tell us the address, roughly how many boxes, and how the driver gets to them: ground floor, elevator, or stairs.
- We confirm your zone and price. Your transportation fee is set by zone, and the exact zone is confirmed when you book. Any handling fee for stairs or restricted access is quoted up front, before anyone drives anywhere.
- Seal and stage the boxes. Tape the tops. Put them where the driver can reach them. Pick the one person who will hand them over.
- The driver loads and the count is signed. You and the driver agree on the box count at the door. Then the boxes go into the vehicle and leave with us.
- Shredded at our Tewksbury office. Your boxes are brought to 1215 Main Street, held in locked handling, and shredded there after they arrive. The shred is baled and recycled, all of it.
- You get the certificate. A Certificate of Destruction is issued for the job. File it with the records it replaces.
We do not shred at your curb and we do not run a shredder at your address. If you need to see your paper destroyed, book a witnessed session at our office instead. That is the only way we offer for you to watch.
Pickup zones and example New Hampshire towns
New Hampshire pickups are priced in three zones by distance from Tewksbury. The fee covers the trip, not the shredding, so it is the same whether we collect five boxes or fifty.
| Zone | Transportation fee | Example areas |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | $129.95 | The Tewksbury area and the New Hampshire border towns, such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow |
| Zone 2 | $159.95 | Greater Nashua and greater Manchester |
| Zone 3 | $199.95 | The Seacoast, such as Portsmouth and Hampton, and points farther north |
These are examples, not a complete list. Towns between the bands, like Hudson, Derry and Londonderry, get their zone confirmed when you book. You will know the number before you commit. Our pickup cost by distance article goes town by town if you want to estimate before calling.
Each of the bigger cities has its own page with local detail. See shredding in Salem for Zone 1, shredding in Nashua and shredding in Manchester for Zone 2, and shredding in Portsmouth for the Seacoast. The full list of towns we serve is on our service areas page.
What off-site shredding costs at 10, 20 and 40 boxes
Your bill has three parts. First the shredding itself, at the same rate as drop-off: 99 cents a pound under 10 boxes, or $15 per small box and $20 per banker’s box at 10 boxes or more. Then the transportation fee for your zone. Then the $34.90 in per-job fees, which is a $14.95 HIPAA filing fee for the Certificate of Destruction paperwork and a $19.95 environmental fee for recycling the shred.
Here are totals for full banker’s boxes, before any handling fee for stairs or restricted access.
| Banker’s boxes | Shredding at $20 a box | Zone 1 total | Zone 2 total | Zone 3 total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $200.00 | $364.85 | $394.85 | $434.85 |
| 20 | $400.00 | $564.85 | $594.85 | $634.85 |
| 40 | $800.00 | $964.85 | $994.85 | $1,034.85 |
Look at what the zone fee does per box. At 10 boxes in Zone 1, the trip adds about $13 to every box. At 40 boxes it adds about $3.25. The bigger the load, the less the pickup matters to your total, which is why most of our New Hampshire pickups are cleanouts and annual purges rather than a single carton.
Small loads still work, they just cost more per box. Three banker’s boxes from a Zone 1 town come to about $253.95 by pickup: $89.10 of shredding at 99 cents a pound, $129.95 for the trip and $34.90 in fees. The same three boxes cost about $124.00 if you drive them to the counter. For the full rate card, see shredding rates.
Chain of custody, from your door to the bale
Chain of custody is a plain idea. At every point between your filing cabinet and the shredder, someone specific is responsible for your boxes, and the handoffs are recorded. When a box leaves your hands, it goes to our driver, then to our office, then through the shredder. It does not sit in a third-party warehouse on the way.
The weak points in any paper chain are the handoffs. That is why we ask for one named person at your end, a count both sides agree on, and taped boxes that make it obvious if one has been opened. After that, the boxes stay with us until the shredder. Our separate piece on chain of custody shredding goes deeper into what to ask any vendor.
Federal rules expect you to check who you hand records to. The FTC Disposal Rule at 16 CFR 682.3(b)(3) describes contracting with a record destruction company after due diligence, and its examples include checking references and reviewing the company’s information security policies. Ask us how our handling works. We will walk you through it.
Health care offices have their own layer. The HIPAA Privacy Rule safeguard duty in 45 CFR 164.530(c) covers paper PHI, and the Security Rule at 45 CFR 164.310(d) covers disposal of electronic media. That same section has an accountability specification asking you to keep a record of the movements of hardware and electronic media. A signed pickup count for a bag of old drives fits neatly into that file.
Drives matter in New Hampshire for another reason. The state breach notice law, RSA 359-C:20, applies to computerized data that includes personal information, and it can require notice to the people affected and to the attorney general’s office. Old drives in a closet are exactly that kind of data. Send them in their own bag on the same pickup.
We sign a Business Associate Agreement on request. Practices usually ask for it before the first pickup. Our medical shredding service page covers charts, EOBs and x-ray film, and what a certificate of destruction should show is explained in its own guide.
The access rule and the handling fee for stairs
Our zone prices assume the driver can reach your boxes at ground level or by elevator. That covers most offices, most houses with a garage or front door at grade, and most business parks. If the boxes are up or down a flight of stairs, or behind restricted access, a handling fee applies. We quote it up front when you book, so it is never a surprise at the door.
Ground level
Boxes by a front door, in a garage, on a loading dock or in a first-floor storage room. This is the standard price. Stage them near the exit and loading goes quickly.
Elevator
Upper-floor offices with a working elevator are also standard price. Tell us if the building wants pickups booked with the property manager or limited to a freight elevator.
Stairs or restricted
Second-floor walk-ups, basement records rooms, and buildings with security escorts or narrow loading windows. A handling fee applies and is quoted before the pickup is confirmed.
The cheapest fix is usually free. If you can carry the boxes down to the lobby or the garage before the driver arrives, the job is ground level and the handling fee goes away. For a house with an older owner or an office with one person on staff, it is often worth paying the fee instead. Be honest about the stairs when you book. An accurate description gets you an accurate quote.
Restricted access covers more than stairs. A medical building that requires a check-in at a security desk, a records room that only one person has a key to, or a downtown Manchester or Portsmouth street with no legal place to stop all add time at your end. Mention them when you book and we will work out the plan with you.
Preparing boxes for a shredding pickup, and who signs
The prep rules are the same as at our counter. Our shredder handles the small stuff, so you can skip the afternoon of pulling staples. What matters for pickup is that the boxes are closed, countable and easy to lift.
- Leave staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders in place.
- Remove three-ring binder hardware and the metal frames of hanging folders.
- Keep anything that is not paper out of the boxes. Hard drives, USB sticks, CDs, tapes and phones go in a separate bag and are quoted per item.
- Tape every box shut. An open box is a box nobody can vouch for.
- Fill banker’s boxes, but do not overfill. A full one is about 30 pounds, and a lid that will not close is a lid that pops off on the stairs.
- Stage them together in one spot near the exit, with a clear path.
- Write the count on a sheet of paper before the driver arrives so the handoff takes a minute, not ten.
Pick one person to hand over the boxes and sign for the count. In an office that is usually the office manager or practice administrator. In a home, it is whoever booked the pickup, or the executor if the house belongs to someone who has died. Tell us their name when you book so the driver knows who to ask for.
If the job needs to appear under a business or estate name on the certificate, say so at booking. It saves a correction later. Our shredding pickup checklist is a one-page version of this list you can print and leave by the boxes.
Not sure what is ready to go? The IRS generally wants supporting tax records kept three years, six if income was underreported by more than 25 percent, and seven for a bad debt or worthless securities claim. Employment tax records are kept at least four years. Pull the files that are past their window, box them, and leave everything else in the cabinet for next year’s pickup.
How long a pickup takes, from booking to certificate
There are three clocks: how soon we can come, how long the driver is at your door, and how soon the paper is shredded. Each one depends on your job, so here is how to think about them rather than a promise we cannot keep.
Getting on the calendar
Pickups are by appointment. We cannot promise a pickup on the day you call, so book ahead, especially for a move date, a lease ending or a practice closing. Pickups outside our 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekday hours can be arranged by appointment.
Time at your door
This is mostly about access. Twenty taped boxes stacked by a ground-floor door load quickly. The same twenty in a basement with one narrow stair take longer, which is what the handling fee is for.
Shredding and paperwork
Your boxes are shredded at our Tewksbury office after they arrive. The Certificate of Destruction is issued for the job once the material has been destroyed. If you need the certificate by a set date, tell us when you book.
If timing is tight and the volume is small, drop-off is faster. Paper you walk into our counter on a weekday is shredded the same business day. A box you can lift into your own car is often done before a pickup could be scheduled.
Who books a shredding pickup service in NH
The pickup customers we hear from in New Hampshire fall into a few groups. Each one has a slightly different reason for not driving, and a slightly different thing to ask us about when they book.
Medical and dental offices
Charts past retention, EOBs, old sign-in sheets and lab requisitions. They usually want a BAA in place first, the certificate in the practice name, and old film or drives bagged separately on the same trip.
Law, tax and finance offices
Closed client files and copies of returns, often dozens of boxes at a time. The FTC Disposal Rule and the GLBA Safeguards Rule at 16 CFR Part 314 are why they ask about the handoff and the certificate.
Property managers and landlords
Old tenant applications and the credit reports pulled with them. Consumer report information falls under the Disposal Rule, so a pickup with a certificate is a tidy way to clear the file room.
Families and executors
A parent’s house with boxes in the basement and nobody fit to carry them. A pickup with a stair handling fee is usually money well spent here, and the executor signs for the count.
What these customers have in common is volume or access, not geography. A Salem dentist with forty boxes and a Portsmouth executor with a basement full of files both book a pickup for the same reason: the drive and the lifting cost more than the zone fee.
What to expect on pickup day
A good pickup is a quiet one. The boxes are taped and stacked by the exit, the person signing is at the door, and the count on your sheet matches the count the driver makes. Most of the work happens before the driver arrives, and that is what keeps the visit short.
When the driver gets there, you count together. If your sheet says 24 and there are 25 boxes by the door, settle it right then and write the right number down. The count you both agree on is the count that leaves your building, and it is the starting point for everything after.
The boxes then go straight into the vehicle. Nothing is opened, sorted or reboxed at your address. If there is a separate bag of drives or media, hand it over as its own item so it is counted on its own. It is quoted per item and physically destroyed.
After that, you are done with your part. The boxes travel to Tewksbury, stay in locked handling at the office, and are shredded there after they arrive. When the job is complete you get the Certificate of Destruction. If anything about the job needs to change after booking, such as the box count doubling or the boxes moving to a different floor, call us at (978) 636-0301 before the pickup date so the quote and the plan still match.
When to choose drop-off instead of off-site shredding
The shredding rate is the same either way. The only thing a pickup adds is the zone fee and, sometimes, a handling fee. So the question is simple: is the trip worth $129.95 to $199.95 of your time and effort?
| Your situation | Our advice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 boxes, you have a car and a weekday | Drive to the drop-off | The zone fee is more than the shredding on a small load |
| 10 to 20 boxes in Salem, Pelham or Windham | Either works | Zone 1 adds $129.95. Compare that with an hour of your day and a full back seat |
| 20 or more boxes anywhere in Zone 2 or 3 | Book the pickup | The trip fee spreads thin across the boxes and you skip the long drive |
| Records on an upper floor with no elevator | Book the pickup | Our driver does the stairs for a handling fee quoted up front |
| You must watch it destroyed | Book witnessed | Pickup material is shredded at our office without you present |
For three boxes, drive. For thirty, book the pickup. Between those two, it comes down to distance and how much your afternoon is worth. Our drop-off shredding page has the walk-in details and drive times, and the drop-off vs off-site comparison works through the break-even by zone.
If you have been told your records must be destroyed in your presence, neither drop-off nor pickup meets that. Book witnessed shredding at $1.99 per pound with a $100 job minimum, and read when you need witnessed shredding before you decide.
Different businesses lean on pickup for different reasons. Law offices clearing closed files have a guide on law firm shredding in NH, and companies moving or downsizing can plan with our office cleanout shredding page. Accountants and tax preparers will find the GLBA Safeguards Rule angle on our shredding for accountants page.
Frequently asked questions
Do you shred the paper at my location?
No. Off-site means our driver picks up your sealed boxes and brings them to our office at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA, where they are shredded. There is no shredder at your curb. If you want to watch your material destroyed, book a witnessed session at our office for $1.99 per pound with a $100 job minimum.
How much is a shredding pickup in New Hampshire?
You pay the shredding rate (99 cents a pound, or $15 per small box and $20 per banker’s box at 10 or more), plus a transportation fee of $129.95 for Zone 1, $159.95 for Zone 2 or $199.95 for Zone 3, plus $34.90 in per-job fees. Ten banker’s boxes in Zone 1 total $364.85.
Which zone is my town in?
Zone 1 covers the Tewksbury area and New Hampshire border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow. Zone 2 covers greater Nashua and greater Manchester. Zone 3 covers the Seacoast and points farther north. The exact zone for your address is confirmed when you book, before you commit to anything.
Is there an extra charge for stairs?
Pickup prices assume ground-level or elevator access. If the boxes are up or down stairs, or behind restricted access such as a security desk, a handling fee applies. It is quoted up front when you book. Carrying the boxes down to the lobby or garage yourself before the driver arrives avoids the fee.
Can you pick up today?
We cannot promise a pickup on the day you call. Pickups are by appointment, so book ahead, especially around a move or a lease end. If you need paper gone today, drive it to our Tewksbury counter on a weekday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Drop-off paper is shredded the same business day.
Who needs to be there when the driver comes?
One person who can hand over the boxes and sign for the count. In an office it is usually the office manager or practice administrator. At a home it is whoever booked, or the executor for an estate. Tell us that person’s name when you book so the driver knows who to ask for.
Do I need to remove staples or file folders?
No. Staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders all go through the shredder. Remove three-ring binder hardware and hanging-folder frames. Keep hard drives, USB sticks and other media out of the paper boxes. Bag them separately and they are quoted per item for physical destruction.
Do I need a contract for regular pickups?
No long-term contract is required. Most New Hampshire pickups are one-time jobs such as a cleanout or an annual purge. Offices that want a pickup every few months simply book each one. Covered entities can ask for a Business Associate Agreement, which we sign on request.
Sources
- 16 CFR Part 682, Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records (eCFR) (checked November 2026)
- FTC, Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How (checked November 2026)
- 45 CFR 164.310, HIPAA Security Rule physical safeguards (eCFR) (checked November 2026)
- IRS, How long should I keep records? (checked November 2026)
- New Hampshire RSA 359-C:20, Notification of Security Breach Required (checked November 2026)
Book your New Hampshire pickup
Tell us the town, the box count and the stairs. We confirm your zone and any handling fee before the driver is scheduled, and your boxes are shredded at our Tewksbury office.
Where your paper is shredded
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pickups outside those hours by appointment.
Three ways to shred: drop-off at 99¢ per pound, off-site pickup by zone, or a witnessed session at $1.99 per pound.
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.