Building a Physical Destruction Process You Can Trust
Sensitive information moves through your organization every day, and keeping it secure doesn’t stop at digital files. A clear, reliable process for destroying physical records reduces risk of non-compliance and protects the customers, employees, and business partners who trust your organization to keep their data private.
From deciding what to shred to choosing the right service and partner, every step of your physical destruction process matters. Let’s dive into the details you should consider when designing a defensible destruction strategy.
Before selecting a destruction partner, it’s important to clarify how your shredding process will work day-to-day. The right structure should minimize risk, reduce unnecessary costs, and make compliance easy to demonstrate. As you evaluate your options, consider the operational trade-offs behind these key process decisions.
Is it better to just shred everything or have employees sort through documents to determine what needs to be shredded and what doesn’t? The right approach varies by organization, but the key priorities are simplicity and protecting confidentiality. In most cases, a “shred everything” policy is the safest and most efficient choice, minimizing human error and guarding against risks like data breaches, confidentiality lapses, and potential legal issues.
While on-site destruction carries the advantage of peace of mind, it’s not necessarily a better choice than off-site options. Consider witness obligations, cost, and partnerships when building your processes.
On-site shredding services can often present logistical issues—mobile shredding vehicles are large and loud and need to stay in a loading dock for a minimum of half an hour.
“If you’re not required to witness the destruction, there is no sense in having things destroyed on-site,” notes Andrew Garner, Director of Secure Shred at Access. “On-site shredding will always be more expensive.”
There’s also the matter of working with a single partner for your information management needs. If you’re working with the same partner for both secure destruction and off-site storage, it makes little sense to have the added expense of on-site shredding. The vendor can simply destroy records and information that have reached the destruction date at the same facility they were being stored in.
When choosing a scheduled or on-demand service, keep in mind that the goal is for your destruction partner to always be picking up or processing full bins.
If your output is inconsistent, on demand destruction may work better for your organization. However, on demand is usually more expensive, as there are more fuel and labor costs. Also, next-day service may not be guaranteed.
A scheduled service can be tailored using the most effective frequency and appropriate number of containers, helping to build a reliable and structured process. It also gives you an opportunity to tell auditors, “our secure destruction vendor comes every two weeks” as opposed to “they come whenever.”
Wonder what the shredding process looks like inside a secure facility? Here’s a quick look at our shredding capabilities.
The first step in choosing your secure destruction partner is to ensure the company is National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) AAA Certified. This certification “verifies secure data destruction companies’ services’ compliance with all known data protection laws through scheduled and surprise audits by trained, accredited security professionals, fulfilling customers’ regulatory due diligence obligations.” In short, it means your partner will abide by appropriate legal and procedural security standards.
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential partners, ask for facility tours to make sure they’re maintaining a level of security that meets your needs.
While you’re there, ask yourself if you feel comfortable with how they’re handling the process. It will go a long way for peace of mind when you’re sending confidential information to their facility to be destroyed.
Be sure to ask a lot of questions, such as:
When you receive answers that put you at ease, and the operational details line up—that’s your new partner.
A strong secure destruction program is built on simplicity, consistency, and trust. Whether you opt for a shred-all policy, scheduled service, or off-site processing, the right approach is the one that reduces risk while fitting seamlessly into your operations.
By choosing a certified, transparent partner and asking the right questions, you can move from basic compliance to lasting confidence in how your information is handled every step of the way.
For a closer look at provider-vendor relationship considerations when choosing a destruction partner, check out our guide From Vendor to Partner. It provides a variety of sample questions you can use to thoroughly screen potential partners.
To explore our secure destruction service options or request a quote, contact us.
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