Document Destruction Services by Sterile Waste Solutions

Document and data destruction is the shredding of sensitive documents at home or a business in a manner that renders the paper information useless while maintaining chain of custody.

So, what is a chain of custody?

It is making sure this shredded material only comes into contact with approved hands, instead of the hands of someone with malicious intent who may sell it to unscru-pulous parties. Document disposal must be conducted by trusted individuals or the results can be dire.

Documents can be destroyed on-site or off-site, at a business or a home, or the secure document shredding facility of a data destruction provider.

They can also be disposed of using mobile shredding services and ship-and-shred, as well as hard-drive shred-ding. The amount of time spent on-site largely deter-mines pricing, so having your documents picked up or dropped off usually saves money.

Drop Off: Best for very small amounts of paper.

Mobile: Best for three to 10 boxes of paper.

On-Site/Off-Site: When your document amount is less than 10 boxes, shredding services simply arrive and shred on-site. But if they exceed 10 boxes, the materials are generally taken from the site and shredded at a secure facility.

Hard Drive Destruction: Sometimes businesses need their actual hard drives destroyed and disposed of, then recycled afterward. Deleting the data is simply not enough—you must shear or crush the hard drive itself.

FACTA: Documents must be disposed of according to FACTA, or the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003. This act dictates that “reasonable measures” must be taken throughout this disposal, which include pulverizing and shredding. Failure to do so can result in civil penalties up to $1,000 per customer affected, class action lawsuits, federal penalties up to $2,500 for every violation, and finally $1,000 for every action that affects residents of the state in question.

The confidential information of your customers needs to be protected. Particularly in the medical industry, much of this information is still maintained on paper. If your business does not keep this information safe, you’ll be out of compliance and be breaking privacy laws.

Maintain Compliance

Fines, legal action, and other penal-ties can be easily avoided when your organization stays in compli-ance with state, federal, and indus-try regulations regarding proper document and data destruction.

Reduce Costs

Storing documents that have out-lived their usefulness is costly; rid your organization of these
space-fillers and repurpose freed-up for greater efficiency.

Safeguard Your Organization

The reputation and brand name of your organization can be seriously damaged by simple data destruc-tion oversights, such as employees not fully shredding even a single page. Imagine key financial data falling into the wrong hands or sen-sitive business data that could give your competitors insight into your proprietary processes.

Document and data disposal can be scheduled for any residence or business, small or large, on a one-time or recurring basis as needed, either on-site or off-site.

At Sterile Waste Solutions, we have customers that require different needs. We strive to always maintain the safety of their most sensitive information as it is transitioned from a vulnerable asset to non-useful waste product in compliance with regulations and privacy laws.

But some industries need shredding and data disposal more often than others due to the particularly sensitive nature of the content. Here are some of those industries that Sterile Waste Solutions specializes in:

Medical Data Destruction

The medical industry not only needs paper documents and data shredded, but medical data to also be properly removed and destroyed. Fraud is rampant in healthcare due in part to the huge amount of paper in this still very non-digitized industry. Plus, healthcare businesses have to deal with HIPAA compliance.

Documents must be disposed of properly when they have exceeded their retention period, contain clerical errors, or when an office has transitioned to digitization. Autoclaving is the most common way medical waste is disposed of, essentially placing the hazardous material in a container and heating it or microwaving it until it’s rendered safe for landfill disposal. Hazardous materials are categorized as either sharp, potentially infectious, pharmaceutical, or chemotherapy related and are disposed of accordingly in different colored containers.

Legal Document Destruction

Attorneys rely on paper. It’s just the nature of the industry, as courts, jails, prisons and treatment facilities also rely on paper due to the requirement largely of signatures. Attorneys also take copious notes on paper throughout their cases and the discovery process. This equates to a ton of documents that must be disposed of properly according to FACTA, which lawyers take very seriously.

Government Shredding Services

The privacy and security of government documents is more stringent than in other industries, and as such must meet higher standards. That’s why government agencies usually prefer shredding firms that are certified by the National Agency of Information Destruction.

This certification makes sure that shredding companies maintain a standard amongst their shredding equipment, insurance coverage, operating procedures and best hiring practices through a series of audits. After shredding is complete these providers issue a NAID certificate ensuring the documents of a particular business were disposed of according to this agency’s standards.

School Document Destruction

Once students graduate, what happens to their records? They can’t be held onto forever. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act determines how records must be handled by schools. Records can be destroyed when no outstanding review requests by other schools or parents remain.