A cautionary tale:
Thirty years ago, on my first day on the job as a records manager for a large northwest city, I found myself chasing a group of records that had been sent out for destruction that should not have been. I was sent on the errand of retrieving them should they still exist. At the time we used a shredding service that transported our records to an off-site facility for destruction. So, I headed out to the off-site facility. There I was met with a horror that stays with me still. Mountains of records sent for (confidential) destruction sat on the open- air tarmac of this facility. They were enclosed by a chain link fence, and an unmonitored entrance. The office sat inside the building with the shredder. Did I find the records I came to retrieve? Of course I did. Outside, on the tarmac. Along with records from many other local government entities, I found records that had clearly been sitting there for months. I eventually found that they were headed for Japan where they were to be used for wrapping fragile exports to the U.S. Apparently they were routinely sold as bulk paper. I have never used an off-site shredding contractor since.
Just saying.
Elizabeth Fairfax
A.S.Elizabeth Fairfax MA, CA
ACA Certified Archivist/CPRO Public Records Professional
Island County Archives, Records and Information Management Program
P.O. Box 5000
1 NE 7th Street
Coupeville WA 98239
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 360-240-5569
Fax:360-240-5553
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pilar McAdam
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2017 3:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Confidential Shredding Pick-up instead of Onsite Disposal
Jessica Fairchild asked for any information that might help her to decide whether to use on-site shredding or not.
Jessica, I have used both on-site shredding and shredding that is done at the vendor’s facility. Here are a couple of things to consider if your organization is located in a high-rise office building:
- There may be challenges in finding a place where the shredding truck can park; you should check on that availability
- Regardless of whether the vendor is doing shredding on-site or off-site, the shred bins will need to be moved from office areas to the vendor’s truck and back again. High-rise buildings often have rules about who can use the elevators and about rolling handcarts or shred bins through lobbies or office areas; you should check with the building manager about the rules and access restrictions. I dealt with a situation in an office building in downtown San Diego where the building manager refused to allow the vendor to roll any bins through the lobby during standard office hours (8am to 5pm).
- Loading dock access may not always match the truck size used by the vendor. I remember a situation in downtown San Francisco where the vendor’s truck was too tall to fit into the loading dock’s entry gate, and there was not any other space available to access the dock. The truck had to leave without providing any service.
If your organization is not located in a high-rise building, and parking for the shred truck is easily available, the considerations really come down to whether the pricing model is different for on-site versus off-site and/or if you have any special security concerns (or demands of high-ranking personnel) that make on-site shredding preferable.
One woman’s opinion.
Pilar C. McAdam, CRM
[log in to unmask]
Los Angeles, CA
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