All businesses have occasion to discard confidential data. Customer lists, price lists, sales statistics, drafts of bids and letters, even memos, contain information about business activity, which would interest any competitor. Every business is also entrusted with information that must be kept private. Employees and customers have the legal right to have this data protected.

Without the proper safeguards, information ends up in the dumpster where it is readily and legally available to anybody. The trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most available source of competitive and private information from the average business. Any establishment that discards private property data without the benefit of destruction exposes itself to the risk of criminal and civil prosecution, as well as the costly loss of business.

Any organization that keeps sensitive records, including personnel and payroll information, needs a secure way to destroy documents that are no longer needed. These include:

• Small businesses
• Corporations
• Finance
• Personnel and payroll
• Product development
• Manufacturing
• Education
• School districts
• Private and parochial schools
• Colleges and universities
• Financial
• Brokerage firms
• Financial planners
• Banks and credit unions
• Mortgage companies
• Government
• City
• State
• Federal
• Healthcare
• Hospitals
• Medical centers and clinics
• Adult care and nursing homes
• HMOs
• Clinics and treatment facilities
• Doctors’ and dentists’ offices
• Pharmacies
• Non-profits and charities
• Professional
• Law firms
• Accounting firms
• Consultants
• Retail businesses
• Restaurants
• Grocery stores
• Mail, phone, and Internet marketers
• Any operation that has employees or accepts credit cards

Anything of a private or confidential nature should be securely destroyed, including:

• Financial records
• Personnel records
• Patient records
• Client records
• Cancelled checks
• Credit card receipts
• Internal directories
• Computer printouts
• Advertising misprints
• Maps and blueprints
• Inventory lists
• Confidential letters
• Fax records
• Invoices
• Payroll records
• Legal documents
• Accounting records
• Customer lists
• Medical records
• Lottery tickets
• New product proposals
• Competitor information
• Internal memos
• Old business records
• Price lists
• Financial forecasts
• Marketing plans
• Correspondence
• Microfilm and fiche
• Credit and phone cards
• Transparencies
• Photographs
• Floppy disks
• CD-ROM, CD-RW, and DVDs
• Prototype materials
• Identification cards
• R and D reports
• Plastic magnetic media
• X-rays
• Surveillance tapes

The period of time that business records are stored should be determined by a retention schedule that takes into consideration their useful value to the business and the governing legal requirements. No record should be kept longer than this retention period.

By not adhering to a program of routinely destroying stored records, a company exhibits suspicious disposal practices that could be negatively construed in the event of litigation or audit.

Also, the new "Federal Rule 26" requires that, in the event of a law suit, each party will provide all relevant records to the opposing counsel within 85 days of the defendant's initial response. If either of the litigants does not fulfill this obligation, it could result in a summary finding against them. By destroying records according to a set schedule, a company appropriately limits the amount of materials it must search through to comply with this law. From a risk management perspective, the only acceptable method of discarding stored records is to destroy them by a method that ensures that the information is obliterated. Documenting the exact date that a record is destroyed is a recommended legal precaution.

Without a program to control it, the daily trash of every business contains information that could be harmful. This information is especially useful to competitors because it contains the details of current activities. Discarded daily records include phone messages, memos, misprinted forms, drafts of bids and drafts of correspondence.

All businesses suffer potential exposure due to the need to discard these incidental business records. The only means of minimizing this exposure is to make sure such information is securely collected and destroyed.

To extract the scrap value from office paper, recycling companies use unscreened, minimum wage workers to extensively sort the material under unsecured conditions. The "acceptable" paper is stored for indefinite periods until there is enough of a particular type to process. The sorted paper, still intact, is then baled and sold to the highest bidder, often overseas, where it may be stored again for weeks or even months until it is finally used to make new products.

There is no fiduciary responsibility inherent in the recycling scenario. Paper is given away or sold and, in doing so, a company gives up the right to say how it is handled. There is, also, no practical means of establishing the exact date that a record is destroyed. In the event of an audit or litigation, this could be a legal necessity. And further, if something of a private nature does surface, the selection of this unsecured process could be interpreted as negligent. For these reasons, the choice of recycling as a means of information destruction is undesirable from a risk management perspective.

If environmental responsibility is a concern, materials may be recycled after they are destroyed or a firm can contract a service that will destroy the materials under secure conditions before recycling them. Any recycling company that minimizes the need for security has its own interests in mind and should be avoided.

Take the time to investigate the company you are dealing with. A "Certificate of Destruction" is only as good as the company that will be destroying your confidential information. KNOW THE COMPANY YOU ARE DEALING WITH. Any company contracting an information destruction service should require that it provide them with a signed testimonial, documenting the date that the materials were destroyed. The "certificate of destruction", as it is commonly referred, is an important legal record of compliance with a retention schedule. It does not, however, effectively transfer the responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of the materials to the contractor.

If private information surfaces after the vendor accepts it, the court is bound to question the process by which the particular contractor was selected. Any company not showing the due diligence in their selection of a contractor that is capable of providing the necessary security could be found negligent.

From a risk management standpoint, if information is leaked by the fraud or negligence of a vendor, their obligations are irrelevant. The firm whose information falls into the wrong hands stands to loose the most, either from the loss of business, prosecution, or unfavorable publicity.

Since a business cannot transfer its responsibility to maintain confidentiality, it must be certain that it is dealing with a reputable company with superior security procedures. Unfortunately, there are those information services that provide certificates of destruction while having no semblance of security and, in some cases, no destruction process available to them. Anyone interested in contracting a data destruction service is advised to thoroughly review their policies and procedures, conduct an initial site audit and conduct subsequent unannounced audits.

Most commercial records storage facilities offer records destruction as a service to their customers. However, in a survey conducted by the National Association for Information Destruction, many of those firms were found lacking the equipment necessary to provide the services themselves. It is a common practice in the industry to subcontract the destruction of records. In some cases, disreputable storage firms were found misleading their customer by charging for secure records destruction while the materials were being sold to a recycling company for scrap.

Any business using a commercial records storage firm should inquire as to the nature of the destruction services that are available. It is an unacceptable risk to permit a storage firm to select a subcontractor to provide the records destruction service. The owner of the records is ultimately responsible for their security and, therefore should be selecting the vendor directly.

Common sense dictates that payroll information and materials that involve labor relations or legal affairs should not be entrusted to lower level employees for destruction. But beyond that, competition sensitive information is best protected from them as well. It has been established, time and again that employees are the most likely to realize the value of certain information to competitors. And, lower wage employees often have the economic incentive to capitalize their success on it. The only acceptable alternatives are to have the materials destroyed under the supervision of upper management or by a carefully selected, high security service.

The short answer is, we can actually save you money, destroy more kinds of materials with greater security, and provide you with a notarized Certificate of Destruction that proves your documents were destroyed in accordance with the law

We offer a range of service plans that make document destruction affordable for organizations of all sizes. The better question – especially when you consider the consequences of employee or customer information falling into the wrong hands – is how can you afford not to have your documents destroyed in a safe, secure way?

We charge by weight or by piece.

No. We shred all colors and type of paper. And there’s no need to remove paper clips, staples, rubber bands, labels, or and file tabs. A separate container can be provided for things other than paper.

Upon receipts of the material.

We can return your cardboard boxes to you or we can recycle them, whichever you choose.

We go to great lengths to provide the highest possible level of security. We conduct thorough background checks on all personnel, and each of our employees undergoes drug testing. In addition, all of are drivers are uniformed and display picture identification, and all of our trucks are locked.

We recycle 100% of the paper we shred. Unrecyclable material is sent to waste-to-energy incinerators.

Yes, we offer several containers to choose from. All of which are secure and have an opening for you to deposit material through.

We can help you for a one time service or if you need routine shredding we can put you on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.

The paper that is destroyed is sent to a paper mill to be recycled.