Buffalo has a lot of old paper. The medical campus downtown, the clinic groups across Erie County, the law offices near the courthouses, and the banks and insurers with back offices in the region all keep files that have to be destroyed on purpose, not thrown out. The buildings are old too, and they come with file rooms, basements, and storage closets where boxes stack up for years. When one of those rooms finally gets cleared, expect dozens of banker boxes at once.
That shapes what you should buy. Downtown and the medical campus run on scheduled console or bin service, because the paper never stops. The suburbs and the small cities along Lake Erie and the Niagara River lean on one-time truck visits: a dentist closing a practice, an accounting office clearing old returns, a family emptying a house in Kenmore or Hamburg. Winter matters. Lake effect snow can close a street for a day, and a truck that cannot reach a loading dock will reschedule, so ask about winter access and leave some slack in January and February.
Pricing is usually per box for a purge, per bin or console for recurring service, and per visit with a minimum for small jobs. On-site shredding, where the truck shreds in your parking lot while you watch, costs more than hauling boxes to a plant. For medical and legal files it is worth it. Get a certificate of destruction every time. Hard drives and backup tapes are a separate item, and a shredder can destroy them and list serial numbers if you ask. On the form, give your town, a box or bin count even if it is a guess, on-site or off-site service, and whether this is one visit or ongoing.
