What does not belong in the confidential paper bin?
A locked console or bin for confidential paper is practical. Staff simply drop in whatever has to go. Too practical, in fact, because after a few months we regularly find a collection that goes well beyond paper: a half-empty battery, a USB stick, an old phone book with two broken LED bulbs in among the pages. It costs money, it is a safety risk and in some cases it really does cause a data breach. Here is the list of what really does not belong in the paper bin.
1. Batteries
The biggest physical threat. Lithium batteries can short-circuit when compressed, and in a pressed bale full of paper that means a fire with explosive spread. Insurers of paper mills keep statistics; batteries are responsible for dozens of fires in the paper-recycling chain each year. Button cells, AA, phone batteries, laptop batteries: hand them all in separately at Stibat collection points or the local recycling centre.
2. USB sticks, memory cards and optical discs
Not only a shame (the data is not destroyed as it should be), but potentially a GDPR data breach. A USB stick with customer records that ends up in the paper bin and is later found somewhere along the chain by waste-handling staff meets the AP's definition of a data breach. An organisation that discovers this has 72 hours to report. We wrote about this scenario in disposing of USB sticks and memory cards.
3. Hard drives
Same story, with more data and greater risk. A decommissioned HDD in the paper bin is a supplier-side data breach waiting to happen. Not our delivery to the paper mill; there they go on the conveyor, are scanned and end up in a sorting bypass somewhere. No destruction certificate, no evidence, just risk. For HDD destruction we have a separate mobile HDD shredder.
4. LTO tapes and old backup cassettes
Magnetic tape does not belong in the paper stream. Furthermore, an LTO tape at a paper mill is not simply "gone": it is fished out as a contaminant and discarded again, and in the meantime the contents remain readable as long as the tape is undamaged. Look at our article on clearing out backup tapes and LTO for the correct route.
5. Plastic folders, ring binders and clips
No direct data-breach risk, but an operational problem. Industrial paper shredders eat staples and paper clips without issue; ring binders and hard plastic can jam and damage blades. For mobile destruction on site we can process this in the truck without problem. For offsite removal in an ordinary paper bin it is better to empty the folders.
6. Bandages, food remains, coffee grounds
The paper bin is not a rubbish bin. Contamination with biological material or moisture makes paper less or no longer recyclable, and the whole bale can drop in salvage value. Plus it stinks after a week. A clean paper bin is a happy paper mill.
7. Book by book and magazines with inkjet photos
Allowed, but stacks of glossy magazines and bound books demand more cyclic capacity from the shredder. With our mobile service that is no issue; with an office shredder you jam more quickly.
8. Carbon paper and old carbon-copy paper
Carbon leaves black smudges in the pulper and can lower the whiteness of the end product. For high-quality black-on-white recycling that is a disadvantage. In modern offices carbon has almost disappeared, but in archives over 30 years old you still come across it.
Rule of thumb: anything that is not paper or cardboard does not belong in the confidential paper bin. In doubt? Call us or set it aside in a "miscellaneous" box.
What does belong?
- Paper and cardboard with confidential data. With or without staples and paper clips.
- Documents in plastic sleeves. For mobile destruction on site no issue; for offsite removal remove the sleeves first.
- Read-through magazines and internal newsletters. Provided no food stains.
- Old printouts and draft versions.
What do you do with the rest?
- Batteries: Stibat collection point (in every supermarket) or the municipal recycling centre.
- USB sticks, SD cards, HDDs, SSDs, optical discs, LTO tapes: hand to a supplier that offers hardware destruction. We do that too, in the same run as the paper.
- Mobile phones: separate sanitisation, because they contain data, battery and metal in one. Read about mobile phones at end of lease.
- Plastic folders and ring binders: regular commercial waste stream or recycling.
Communicating to staff
Console labelling helps enormously. A clear row of pictograms for "yes" and "no" on the lid works better than a printed memo no one reads. On request we supply stickers with the standard icons. A second tip: put a separate yellow bin for batteries somewhere central on the floor. People throw what they have in hand into the nearest bin; give them a better bin.
In doubt: call us
If your organisation comes across a box of "odd electronics", we almost always have a suitable destruction route. It saves you a notification incident and costs little extra on the same run. A data breach caused by a stray USB stick meets the AP's notification form; read about the 72-hour notification duty to see what an incident like that costs in time and attention.
One supplier for paper and hardware.
We combine paper destruction with hardware destruction in the same mobile run. One certificate, one route, no data breach risk from incorrect sorting.
Request a quoteUnsure where something belongs? Email us a photo via desnipperaar.nl. We will tell you straight away whether we take it or it has to go another way.