Volume 10, Issue 6
&
November / December 2013
Security Shredding Storage News
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Classified Document Destruction Not Your Typical Shredding Job
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or document destruction companies, there’s shredding and then there’s “shredding.” In the former case, on-site and off‑site document destruction services cater to individuals and businesses, providing them with a fast, easy and efficient way to dispose of paperwork that may contain sensitive and confidential information. In the latter case, companies such as South Bay Document Destruction take shredding services even further, meeting Department of Defense guidelines for the destruction of classified documents. South Bay, located in Gardena, Calif., about 10 miles from Los Angeles, is one of a small number of document destruction companies geared to handle shredding of classified documents from government/military facilities and government contractors, such as those in the defense or aerospace industries. “We handle the classified portion of document destruction, which is very different from your regular on-site or off-site shredding,” notes South Bay account manager Ruth Mendez. South Bay also offers more traditional shredding services as well as records management, records storage and document scanning. “We specialize in setting up confidential destruction services designed to fit the needs of residential, commercial, government and medical clientele,” Mendez says. Originally started as a recycling company handling paper, cardboard, newspapers, cans and other waste, it moved into the shredding field when it had the opportunity to purchase a shredder
designed for classified documents from another business. It also inherited some of the customers from that business. Today, South Bay is one of just a handful of companies offering classified document destruction services in California, according to Mendez. “When it comes to classified document destruction, it’s an expensive service, not everybody does it and the equipment is very expensive,” she says. What sets South Bay apart from its competitors, she contends, is equipment. “Ours is very customized special equipment that shreds 2,500 pounds an hour,” she says, noting that rival firms can only shred 600 pounds an hour. The South Bay equipment shreds documents into pieces 3/16 of an inch, which Mendez describes
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Inside This Issue
4 The EPR Experiment
9 Non-profit Employs Developmentally Disabled to Shred Documents
12 Insurance Policy Cancellations
Illegal, Advises ObamaCare Expert
14 Are You Playing To Win
Or Not To Lose With Your Shredding Business?
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Security Shredding & Storage News
PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher / Editor Rick Downing Contributing Editors / Writers Theodore Fischer P. J. Heller Jay Wallus Sandy Woodthorpe Production / Layout Barb Fontanelle Christine Pavelka Advertising Sales Rick Downing Subscription / Circulation Donna Downing Editorial, Circulation & Advertising Office 6075 Hopkins Road, Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 / Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com www.sssnews.com Subscription information, call 440-257-6453 S e c u r i t y S h re d d i n g & S t o ra ge N e w s (ISSN #1549-8654) is published bimonthly by Downing & Associates. Reproductions or transmission of Security Shredding & Storage News, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Annual subscription rate U.S. is $19.95. Outside of the U.S. add $10.00 ($29.95). Contact our main office, or mail-in the subscription form with payment.
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Classified Document Destruction Not Your Typical Shredding Job Continued from page 1
as “really just dust.” Inclusion on the NSA list means the equipment meets the government’s performance requirement for high security disintegrators; the list is not an endorsement, nor does it offer any links to document destruction companies that are utilizing the equipment. For Mendez, networking with security personnel at defense contractors — shredding often falls under their list of responsibilities — is one way to get the word out about the services offered by South Bay. Word‑of‑mouth among security officers in those plants also leads to work for the company. The South Bay website notes that the company “was founded on Department of Defense classified document destruction.” South Bay serves the Southern California area, stretching as far south as San Diego and to Lancaster in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert as well as into San Bernardino County. The majority of its customers with classified documents are government contractors; in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties alone, there are more than 13,000 defense contractors, according to the website www.governmentcontractswon.com. Two trucks are utilized in the classified document destruction process, one with the shredder portion and the other for the transfer of the material. The two trucks need to work together to perform the job, Mendez explains. “You almost have to see the equipment to
understand it,” she says. “Even the government contractors we work with, we usually do a demo for them so they can understand how the system works.” Because South Bay is not a “cleared” facility, work has to be performed at the customer’s site, where the classified documents are carefully monitored by as many as three observers from the customer’s facility. “They’re always there,” Mendez says. “They don’t ever leave us alone with the documentation. They have very strict rules about what can or can’t leave the premises and how it needs to be protected.” South Bay service reps make sure there are no metal clips on the documents other than paperclips — “anything else is a disaster waiting to happen” due to the possibility of sparking a fire, Mendez says — then the documents are loaded onto the input machine. The service reps never get a view of the actual documents, she adds. “Once we shred it and we’re done with it, it’s dust and ultimately more like mulch, which is why we have a sprinkler system in our equipment,” she notes. The reason for the sprinkler system is because “when you’re shredding to that size, you can very quickly spark a fire,“ she explains. “The sprinkler system keeps everything kind of damp to avoid a fire.” Because the resulting material is pulverized, it usually has little to no recycling value. In some cases, when there is only a small amount of pulverized material, it may be mixed in with regular paper shredding. For larger quantities, it is disposed of in
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Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
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Security Shredding & Storage News
I
The
EPR
Experiment About half of the states now have laws that hold manufacturers responsible for ensuring electronic products get recycled. The laws are boosting volumes, but recyclers worry about red tape, market distortions, and unintended consequences.
By Theodore Fischer
n a 1991 report to the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, Thomas Lindhqvist, an associate professor at Lund University (Lund, Sweden), described a regulatory strategy to achieve “decreased total environmental impact from a product, by making the manufacturer of the product responsible for the entire life-cycle of the product and especially for the take-back, recycling, and final disposal of the product.” He gave this strategy a name: extended producer responsibility. In his 2000 dissertation on EPR, Lindhqvist suggests that without such policies, a manufacturer will not consider a product’s total life-cycle cost because someone else—the consumer or the government—pays for end-of-life collection, recycling, or disposal. EPR policies can meet three environmental goals, he says: They can ensure the covered end-of-life products are collected, increase their recycling, and create incentives to design products with less environmental impact. He also notes an economic goal: “EPR provides a financing solution for a government wanting to improve the waste management and recycling standards in its country [while] not raising taxes and municipal charges.” Even before it had a name, the EPR approach to product management existed in the design of some bottle deposit systems and voluntary take-back programs. Laws in North America and Europe have applied EPR principles to packaging, batteries, vehicles, tires, and—more recently—electronics. In 2003 the European Union adopted the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive to make manufacturers responsible for collecting a defined volume of covered electronic products. The latest iteration of WEEE, enacted in 2012, expanded the scope to nearly all electronic products and changed how each country calculates its recycling and reuse goals. Advocates for an EPR approach to end-of-life electronics in the United States cite the many problems electronics pose in the waste stream. They can contain hazardous materials such as mercury, lead, and cadmium that require proper management to ensure they don’t harm people or the environment. The design and complexity of electronic gadgets make it difficult and costly to separate materials into commodity streams for recycling or disposal of hazards. The costs of proper processing can outweigh the value of the recyclable commodities, which can make it difficult to earn a profit without charging for the service. Further, electronics is one of the fastest-growing U.S. waste streams. U.S. residents disposed of 3.41 million tons of electronics in 2011, according to the most recent EPA report, of which only 25 percent was recycled. The remaining 75 percent wound up in landfills and incinerators.
EPR in the United States
T
he EPR approach to end-of-life electronics has taken hold in nearly half of the states. Twentythree states have passed laws that require electronics manufacturers to establish and finance programs to collect and recycle electronic products. Two additional states took different approaches: California charges consumers an advance recovery fee when they purchase electronic devices and uses those fees to fund a system that partially subsidizes the collection and recycling of covered electronic products. Utah requires manufacturers to report their collection and recycling programs available to state residents and educate consumers about available recycling options, but it does not require them to finance collection or recycling programs.
4 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
State EPR laws outline the responsibilities of both original equipment manufacturers and the recyclers they hire to meet their obligations. In New York, for example, manufacturers of covered electronic devices must establish free and convenient systems for collecting end-of-life electronics from consumers in every county and municipality with a population of 10,000 or more, pay an annual fee, and file an annual report of their recycling. Manufacturers that don’t meet state-mandated recycling goals must pay a surcharge. In-state recyclers must submit a one-time registration form, file annual reports, pay an annual fee, and comply with certain operating requirements. Wisconsin requires manufacturers of covered devices to collect and recycle—or arrange to collect and recycle—a volume of electronics that’s equal to 80 percent (by weight) of what they sold to Wisconsin households or covered schools or pay a shortfall fee. Recyclers must register and submit semiannual reports, maintain liability insurance coverage, and have a written contingency plan for responding to releases of hazardous substances; also, they cannot use prison labor for electronics processing. Minnesota’s law requires only manufacturers of consumer video display devices—monitors or screens that measure more than 9 inches diagonally—to collect and recycle a wide range of consumer electronics as well as to register and pay an annual fee. Electronics collectors and processors in the state don’t pay a fee but must register and report to the state; processors of video display devices must have $1 million in liability insurance and must not use prison labor to process those items. Each of the 25 state laws for electronics recycling is different, says Scott Cassel, CEO of the Product Stewardship Institute (Boston), a nonprofit that works with governments, manufacturers, retailers, and other stakeholders. “Some are better, and others perform less well.” He considers the laws in Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Maine, and Vermont the strongest because they have produced the highest pounds-per-capita annual collection rates. These laws typically require manufacturers to collect a comprehensive scope of products, meet annual collection targets, make programs convenient for all residents, and provide adequate resources for the state agency to enforce the law. “Other programs are in need of refinement, which may mean an adjustment of the regulation or better implementation,” he says. Cassel gives PSI’s evaluation of the first two years of New York’s program as an example. The assessment determined that the program saved local governments millions of dollars, increased the number of collection sites 77 percent, and increased the volume of electronics collected. At the same time, however, it concluded the program still lacked sufficient outreach and education about the law statewide, New York City residents had only limited access to convenient collection, and the state environmental agency did not have adequate resources to implement the program. ISRI expressed its concerns about some state EPR bills when the board of directors issued an EPR policy statement in 2011. The statement asserts that “many of these extended producer responsibility or product stewardship bills are drafted in such a way that ignores the strength, capabilities, and vibrancy of the existing scrap recycling industry in the United States.” While ISRI favors policy that promotes a competitive, market-based recycling system, the association also supports policy that “allows in certain instances to hold
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Security Shredding & Storage News Continued from previous page producers financially responsible for costs associated with responsibly recycling certain products, such as used electronics equipment.” It also “supports ending producer responsibility and government-imposed fees as soon as practicable.” When the first state electronics EPR laws were under development, ISRI expressed concerns about some attempts to limit exports, which would have run counter to the federal role in regulating interstate commerce, explains Eric Harris, ISRI’s associate counsel and director of government and international affairs. ISRI also has worked to keep these laws focused on consumer or household electronics, not those from companies, “because that side of the business is working without financial mechanisms or subsidies,” he says. “We’ve also tried to limit the scope of the materials” the laws address “to those that have a negative cost to recover, such as televisions and monitors.”
The Recyclers’ Perspective
S
tate EPR laws primarily concern themselves with the role of electronics manufacturers, less so with the recyclers who actually process the end-of-life products. Some e-scrap processors have a favorable opinion of the EPR laws in their states, despite the added regulatory burden. “Since the law went into effect, it’s bringing more material out, so that’s definitely a plus,” says Philip Fava, president of e-Green Recycling Management, a subsidiary of PK Metals (Coram, N.Y.). “Regulation is good, but, like everything, there’s always some issues.” For his company, the main challenge was obtaining R2/RIOS™ certification. The New York law does not require certification, but “the customers—the [original equipment manufacturers]—require it,” he says. Otherwise, “they won’t even deal with you.” Implementing a management system that tracks the company’s performance on quality, environmental, and health and safety measures—and then getting that system certified—“can take a year to 18 months,” Fava says. “But it’s worth it—100 percent” because certification improves the industry’s image as well as a company’s image. “Now, when you sit down with a government agency or a major corporation, you have these certifications and it raises us to a more professional level,” he says. “People in the recycling business used to be viewed as mom-and-pop and Sanford and Son—and some people still view us that way. But we’ve come a long way from there.” Todd Gibson, vice president of marketing at Vintage Tech Recyclers (Romeoville, Ill.), also is relatively bullish on EPR. “I’d be the first one to tell you that not every law is perfect, but … there [have] been some fantastic gains” in EPR states, he says. “We have created hundreds of jobs with the help of the EPR laws and the OEMs that we represent across the country, and we’ve been able to expand our business in part due to the new EPR take-back programs [in which] we have been fortunate to participate.” Vintage Tech and other recyclers must manage the “unique complexities of each state’s take-back law,” says Gibson, whose company has processing facilities at its headquarters and in Plainfield, Ill.; Philadelphia; Canton, Mich.; Riverside, Mo.; and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. “Every state has its own unique description” of a covered electronic device, not to mention its own name for that category of devices, he explains, with acronyms that include EED, VDD, and CEE. “Every state defines different forms of reporting and even which
entity involved is responsible for the reporting.” For tracking, “some states have 17 categories of accepted devices; some have three,” he says. His company’s facilities track data according to company policy, “then we have to break the data down to [the requirements of] the states that our sites service.” Each state has “hot-button items” it wants to see in a recycling plan, he adds, from permanent collection sites to collectionevent notification to mail-back programs and more. “Those few items, in our opinion, are the largest complexities for an e-waste recycler operating across multiple state programs.” Some of these states have landfill bans and others don’t; Vintage Tech has experience with both environments. “In states that have a landfill ban, you see a higher influx of materials coming in as consumers and businesses cannot use old, traditional disposal methods,” Gibson says. At the same time, however, in these states, “we will receive a disproportionately high volume of [cathode-ray-tube] monitors and televisions. We also will see more of the mixed electronics not covered under the typical state laws.” In states with no landfill ban, Gibson says, “it leaves open to interpretation what is the responsible path, socially and financially, for the residents and businesses. … E-waste doesn’t necessarily end up in the recycling stream.” These states typically have lower recycling rates per capita than states with landfill bans, he adds, but he points out that “each state has its own challenges … from infrastructure and even the political environment in the state,” which affect its decision. Thus, Vintage Tech does not take a position on the subject of landfill bans. Some recyclers say state EPR laws have been beneficial, but they still don’t like them. EPR “has created some opportunities in certain scenarios, and we have customers and suppliers with eligible CEDs,” says Jim Levine, president of Regency Technologies (Twinsburg, Ohio). Even so, “I am not a proponent of the programs in general,” he says, because they have “created a lot of artificial economic factors in the marketplace that probably shouldn’t be there.” Levine gives this hypothetical example: A state requires an original equipment manufacturer to collect a million pounds of CEDs a year. When the recycler that was contracted by the OEM to collect the material fulfills the contract in three months, the OEM “turns off the spigot” and refuses to subsidize any more collection or processing. The recycler can no longer afford to process negative-value materials for free, so for the rest of the year it charges a fee to accept items such as CRTs. “It can create a negative perception in the consumer marketplace toward the recycler,” Levine says, “because the recycler is the face of the program
who one day is collecting a CRT monitor for free, or maybe even paying for the material, and now says, ‘I have to charge to process the same material.’” He believes market forces that affect supply and demand—without state interference—would lead to better e-scrap collection and processing. There might be “good intent up front, but people [are] not necessarily thinking about the unintended consequences that sometimes come along” with these laws, he says. He does support landfill bans or other laws that prevent the dumping of CRT glass in the United States or “anywhere in the world,” he says, but “the EPR programs do not accomplish that goal, in my opinion.” Still others agree with Cassel that state EPR laws could use some tweaking. Willie Cade, CEO of PC Rebuilders & Recyclers (Chicago), holds up the Illinois law, for which he advocated, as a good example of how to create a system with incentives for reuse. In that state, “if an item is collected and it’s reused … then you count it for twice as many pounds,” Cade says. “That obviously promotes reuse, which is a better environmental outcome.” No other state laws have that provision, he says. Harris agrees that EPR laws seem to have a positive effect on recycling volumes, pointing out that volumes in those states continued to increase during the recession. But ISRI members have expressed concerns about certain aspects of state EPR programs, he says, such as inaccurate reporting of collection and recycling, inconsistent enforcement of certain provisions, and underpayment: To get recycling contracts with manufacturers, companies are underbidding their competitors, and the payments “are not reflecting the true cost of recovering the more problematic materials, such as the [CRT] glass.” Also, in more general terms, Harris says, members worry about how giving manufacturers control over the supply of used household electronics means “fewer and fewer recyclers have the opportunity to win contracts” to process that material. As a result, he says, many companies are choosing to focus on recycling electronics from the business sector rather than household streams.
“In states that have a landfill ban, you see a higher influx of materials coming in as consumers and businesses cannot use old, traditional disposal methods. At the same time, however, in these states, we will receive a disproportionately high volume of [cathoderay-tube] monitors and televisions.”
States of Satisfaction
P
rogram directors in states that have passed electronics EPR laws seem, for the most part, pleased with the results, but they also see how the laws could be improved. In Minnesota, “from a purely weight-based perspective—and from an environmental perspective in terms of the amount of material collected—it’s been stunning,” says Garth Hickle, product stewardship team leader for
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Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
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Security Shredding & Storage News
The EPR Experiment Continued from page 5
the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (Duluth, Minn.). “We’ve had a dramatic increase in the amount of material that has been collected and recycled [since the law was enacted]—we’ve averaged a little over 6 pounds per capita each year of the program.” He says the law benefits the state’s 55 registered electronics recyclers, too. Subsequently, “several recyclers have expanded operations or sited new facilities in the state,” he says. On his wish list, however, are an increase in the scope of products the law addresses and additional collection facilities in rural areas. Maryland has made some changes to the electronics EPR law it enacted in 2005, which requires manufacturers to establish take-back programs for the CEDs they produce and meet certain goals or pay a higher annual registration fee. (Maryland imposes no requirements on recyclers.) “Several [Consumer Electronics Association] members who were very small manufacturers were concerned about the cost of the initial registration, which was $10,000 for everybody, no matter [the company’s] size or how many items it sold in Maryland,” says Hilary Miller, who manages the waste diversion and utilization program at the Maryland Department of the Environment (Baltimore). “We worked with CEA to get the registration fees adjusted based on [a company’s] sales in Maryland. Quite a number of small manufacturers that we could not get to register under the old law have now
registered, so that’s a good thing.” Maryland also expanded the law to cover televisions in addition to computers and monitors. Will the EPR trend take hold in the other half of the country? Cassel says about a half-dozen states, including Massachusetts and Nebraska, are introducing similar laws, but the rush to legislate a solution to the end-of-life electronics problem has slowed. Many of the remaining states—most of them in the West and South—have no legislative proposals on the books, “because they prefer a voluntary approach,” he says. “Even if industry is supportive, it takes an awful lot to get any legislation passed” in such states. Cade agrees that the trend to pass new electronics EPR laws has already peaked. “If you look at the number of states that have added legislation over the last couple of years, it’s been pretty much nil,” he says. “There’s been some additions, or tweaking of existing bills, but I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot of change in the next three years.” Harris points out that “most of the U.S. population centers are covered by existing laws,” which creates less motivation for the development of laws in the remaining states. Sources say a coherent national electronics EPR law is unlikely in today’s Congress, but more uniform state legislation outlining the roles of manufacturers, recyclers, and government could be in the cards. “As stakeholders, we need to come together to develop a good national model that can be adjusted slightly based on unique state characteristics, so that there are not the 25 different laws in 25 different states, which we have now,” says PSI’s Cassel. “It’s very inefficient, it creates confusion and unnecessary costs, so we would like to see these programs harmonized. My hope is that in a few years it will happen.” Harmonization is not necessarily what Harris sees ahead, however. He refers back to ISRI’s policy statement, which supports ending producer responsibility and government-imposed fees “as soon as practicable.” What circumstances would make that possible? A significant reduction in the CRT glass supply, Harris says, as it’s the material that’s most costly and difficult for recyclers to manage. The supply seems to be tapering off, though people have been saying CRTs will be gone “in five years for 10 years now,” he says. “ISRI has said it will support these mechanisms until the market can sustain itself,” Harris says. “Many in the electronics sector are now starting to ask… Is that time now?” Theodore Fischer is a writer based in Silver Spring, MD. This article originally appeared in the November/December 2013 issue of Scrap magazine (www.scrap. org). Reprinted with permission.
The Manufacturers’ View
S
www.alpineshredders.com
o what do the electronics manufacturers make of the extended producer responsibility approach states have chosen to keep electronics out of the waste stream? “We certainly understand the reasons for these EPR laws,” says Walter Alcorn, vice president for environmental affairs and industry sustainability at the Consumer Electronics Association (Arlington, Va.), but they “are really a series of experiments to get manufacturers more involved in the life cycle of those products, including end-of-life recycling. … It’s an interesting idea, but the jury’s still out on how effective they’ll be.” Alcorn points out that “while there is a good amount of recycling that is going on because of these laws, there’s also a lot of voluntary recycling activity that’s going on by consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers,” which is the approach the organization would prefer. “At CEA, one of our long-term goals is to move recycling away from being a compliance issue to being a part of the business process, and to integrate recycling into corporate business models. That’s the kind of thing we encourage.” CEA member companies responsibly recycled 585 million pounds of electronics in 2012, he points out, and 99 percent of it was handled by third-party-certified recycling facilities. In April 2011 the association’s eCycling Leadership Initiative launched the Billion Pound Challenge, an industrywide initiative to recycle a billion pounds of electronics annually by 2016.
Info Request #101
6 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
Security Shredding & Storage News
Classified Document Destruction Not Your Typical Shredding Job Continued from page 3 the landfill. Customers could arrange to have the documents burned in an incinerator, but Mendez notes that entails more work for them, including having to transport the material to the burn site. “They (incinerator operators) are not catering to them most of the time,” she says. “They’re basically like a trash company.” Defense contractor and military/government installations could do their own document destruction — at least one aerospace company that Mendez knows of has its own classified document shredder — but she says it makes more sense to outsource that job. “It depends on the facility, but I’ve always said that if you’re an aerospace company, you’re not in the shredding business so why should you be shredding,” she says. “Sometimes it really is a lot cheaper to outsource it than to do it inhouse, especially when it comes to a shredder that’s going to shred to a classified specification. That equipment is expensive, not to mention that they’re having to pay people to run it and they’re not in the shredding industry. I just don’t see how it’s more cost-effective than outsourcing it to a company that’s set up to do just that. “That’s what we do,” she adds. “As far as equipment, we’re much more knowledgeable than an aerospace company or military office would be when it comes to the equipment we’re working with.” Mendez also questions whether classified document destruction is a viable option for other shredding companies looking to expand their services. One reason is that the equipment needed to handle those jobs may sit idle for some time before a job comes along. “It’s not like shredding for a law firm or an accounting firm,” she says. “It’s not the same thing. It’s two different things. It’s handled entirely differently. The security portion of it, even dealing with the people you’re going to be shredding for, everything is very specific. I just don’t think it makes sense. We started that way, but had we started with regular shredding, we probably would not be shredding classified documents.” One of the issues faced by companies handling classified document destruction is meeting specific government specifications. In July, two of the nation’s largest shredding companies — Iron Mountain and Shred-It — agreed to pay a total of $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that they defrauded the U.S. government by failing to shred sensitive documents as required by their federal contracts. A third defendant, Cintas Corp., a multibillion company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, still contests allegations that it defrauded the federal government by failing to properly shred sensitive documents. The settlement by Iron Mountain and Shred-It comes after a multi-year investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. That investigation was triggered by a lawsuit filed by Douglas Knisely, owner of a family-operated document-shredding business in rural central Pennsylvania. Knisely alleged that Iron Mountain, Shred-It and Cintas failed to shred sensitive government documents as required by their contracts with the General Services Administration. The contracts called for the firms to shred highly sensitive documents for federal government agencies, including the departments of defense, homeland security, justice; treasury, veteran affairs and the Social Security Administration. Mendez says one of her goals for the New Year is to become a “cleared” facility, allowing it and its employees to handle documents in-house. “It would make life easier for them [customers] and us,” she says. “Anybody would be able to bring in documents to our facility because we would be a cleared facility. Even our employees handling the documents would not be an issue at all; versus right now some of the companies do have an issue with our service reps touching a document because they might be able to see something. “They’re handling the documents for maybe 10 seconds, even less,” she adds. “So it’s hard to see anything that would be of value to us if we had any interest in getting that information. Still, according to the companies, it’s part of the rules they have to follow. People handling documents have to be cleared and the facility has to be cleared.” If South Bay was cleared, “I think there would be much more opportunity for us to grow . . . We could say, ‘Look, we’re a cleared facility.’ That makes a big difference to all the government contractors. They have entire departments just dedicated to maintaining the clearance of their facility.”
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Info Request #106
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Info Request #105
Security JCAC_SSSN_QuarterPgLockItAds.indd Shredding & Storage2 News. November / December 201312-08-30 7
1:59 PM
In the News International Paper Announces Cardboard Recycling Plan
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nternational Paper, the world’s largest paper company, has announced a longterm agreement with Balcones Resources that IP says will allow it to increase the amount of used cardboard boxes recovered from its waste stream by 15 percent, compared to a 2010 baseline, by 2020. Under the agreement, recovered material will be used in the company’s production of new corrugated boxes. International Paper already recovers, processes or facilitates the sale of more than 6 million tons of fiber each year in the US, which the company says makes it one of the country’s largest paper recyclers. One of the company’s 12 sustainability goals for 2020 targets an increase in old corrugated container recovery. International Paper operates 23 of its own recycling facilities around the world, and also uses collaborations and acquisitions to recover material. In other waste paper news, a new study shows a decrease in the corrugated industry’s use of wax coatings since 2002, according to research by the Corrugated Packaging Alliance. The organization attributes the 33 percent decline in waxed corrugated cardboard to the development of recyclable alternatives. By developing and using wax alternatives, the industry continues to increase the amount of recyclable corrugated packaging. In 2012, the corrugated industry shipped 9.4 billion square feet of boxes using recyclable wax alternative coatings. That’s over 621 percent more than the 1.3 billion square feet shipped when first measured in 2002. Some 46 recyclable wax alternatives have passed certification testing for “repulpability” and recyclability and have been registered with the Fibre Box Association as of October, the COA says.
Navy SEAL Trainer Lt. Cmdr. Denver to Keynote at NAID 2014
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he National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) will host Lieutenant Commander Rorke Denver at the upcoming NAID 2014 Annual Conference and Expo (NAID 2014). Lt. Cmdr. Denver has run every phase of training for the U.S. Navy SEALs in addition to leading Special Forces missions in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and other international hot spots. He starred in the hit film “Act of Valor,” which is based on his story. He is also the author of the bestselling book “Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior,” which provides a glimpse into the fascinating and demanding SEAL training program he now runs. During his 13-year career, Lt. Cmdr. Denver’s team conducted more than 190 missions, including sniper operations, direct assaults, special reconnaissance and ground patrols. His team has been widely credited with propelling the “tribal awakening” that helped to neutralize Iraq’s Shia insurgency. Lt. Cmdr. Denver was awarded the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat. Over the years, the NAID annual conference has become well known for high caliber and relevant speakers. Past keynotes include noted identity fraud expert Frank Abagnale, popular sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer, and 9/11 firefighter and hero Chief Richard Picciotto. “Certainly no one is more deserving of that acknowledgement than Lt. Cmdr. Denver who has taken such amazing risks and dedicated his life to keeping us safe,” added Johnson. “And, he also has an especially important message and way of communicating.” NAID 2014 will be April 4-6, 2014, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.
attention: readers!
Would you like more information about products and equipment advertised in this issue? If so, please complete the Equipment Locator Service form located between pages 8 & 9 and fax to 440-257-6459.
www.naidem.org 8 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
In the News Non-profit Employs Developmentally Disabled to Shred Documents
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omerset, PA — A non-profit that trains and places developmentally disabled individuals here has come up with a new way to employ them – shredding documents, reports Tribune-Democrat.com. The non-profit project, Shred Express, grew out of a partnership between Somerset County Workshop and the Bedford-Somerset Mental Health/Mental Retardation program. Two years in the making, the Workshop launched the program in late 2013, supported by a $140,000 grant secured from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. A 10 percent match came from Somerset MH/MR to get the project off the ground, workshop director Jackie O’Conner says. Shred Express’ operations are located at the county industrial park where as many as 20 disabled individuals regularly package, weigh and shred documents at the facility, some processing 150 pounds an hour. The jobs pay the minimum hourly wage or per bin of paper processed, O’Conner explains. The grant money allowed the project to acquire the specialized machinery, including oversized electronic shredders, conveyor belt system and bindery equipment. Shred Express serves area medical offices and law firms that pay document shredding rates based on weight or container. O’Connor says business is picking up and she believes the project will be much busier in 2014.
Environmental Solutions Group Expands Operations with New Phoenix Facility
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nvironmental Solutions Group (ESG) recently announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Phoenix, AZ. The company says the expansion is necessary to address a growing demand for its products in the western region of the United States. According to Bob McMackins, ESG’s vice president of manufacturing, “Our manufacturing operations have been primarily located in the Southeast. Having a large-scale manufacturing option in the western part of the U.S. makes perfect sense for our customers. We can now manufacture our products much closer to their point of use, reducing freight charges for our customers.” The company says it will initially use the facility to manufacture their Marathon brand of compactors and balers used in solid waste and recycling applications, as well as anaerobic digestion systems produced in partnership with Zero Waste Energy of Lafayette, California. Environmental Solutions Group encompasses leading brands in the solid waste and recycling industry, including Heil Environmental, Marathon Equipment Company, Bayne Premium Lift Systems, and The Curotto-Can Company. ESG is part of Dover Corporation, a Fortune 500, diversified, global manufacturer of specialized industrial products and equipment with annual revenues over $8 billion.
www.shred-tech.com
Info Request #157
Pratt Holdings and Valparaiso Containerboard Mill Deal Clinched
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alparaiso, IN — Paper products giant, Pratt Holdings, Inc. has backed $200 million in bonds to finance the building of a paper recycling mill in Valparaiso, IN, reports BloombergNews.com The city plans to sell the tax-free revenue bonds. According to the sale agreement and city documents, Valparaiso will repay the company for as much as $13.5 million in costs tied to the project. The state’s Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority has offered the mill about $15 million in incentives, and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. plans to provide as much as $1.2 million in tax credits and $200,000 in training grants as Pratt adds jobs at the new plant. The plant is expected to add more than 100 jobs and manufacture some 380,000 tons of containerboard annually once it begins running at full capacity in 2018. The mill is slated to open in 2015, according to bond-offering documents. The Georgia-based Pratt currently employs more than 300 people in Valparaiso. The company operates 71 plants in the U.S. and Mexico through subsidiaries, including facilities in New York’s Staten Island and Oakland, California. Pratt’s paperboard products are used to package food and beverages, electronics and medicines.
www.keithwalkingfloor.com
Info Request #117
Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
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In the News AccuShred’s “Shred Cancer” Program Raises Over $35,000 for Northwest Ohio Affiliate Susan G. Komen for the Cure
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ccuShred, an information destruction and electronics recycling company headquartered in Toledo, has announced that its “Shred Cancer” program has raised over $35,000 for Northwest Ohio Affiliate Susan G. Komen for the Cure since its launch in August of 2011. Shred Cancer is an innovative awareness and fundraising program that encourages AccuShred customers to display and use the company’s secure Pink Shred Bins for holding their sensitive information to be destroyed, and to make a donation for each bin AccuShred services. When they do so, AccuShred matches the customer’s contribution, with 100% of the money going to Northwest Ohio Affiliate Susan G. Komen for the Cure to support local breast health programs and research. “We began Shred Cancer to make an ongoing impact on behalf of the many families in our community that have been affected by breast cancer,” said Nate Segall, AccuShred president. “We have been extremely happy with the response from our customers.” “The pink bins are fun and offer an increased awareness for breast cancer at local businesses,” said Mary Westphal, Executive Director of Northwest Ohio Affiliate Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “We are grateful for this important partnership with AccuShred and all of the local businesses who support Komen when they participate in the AccuShred Shred Cancer program.”
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NAID Launches Second Year of Shred School, New Mastermind Groups
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ore than 150 secure destruction professionals attended and completed a Shred School workshop in 2013, the debut year of NAID’s
program. Shred School became the member education arm of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) in December 2012. Each Shred School workshop is two days and introduces attendees to the secure destruction industry tips and best practices. Shred School visited Chicago, Boston, Orlando, Dallas and San Francisco July through October. “Based off the constructive feedback we received, we will be visiting more cities next year,” said Ray Barry, Chief Shreducation and Member Relations Officer. “Also, I’m really excited to announce a new program in conjunction with Shred School, the NAID Sales Mastermind Groups. These groups will help Shred School graduates continue their professional development to become the best sales entrepreneurs and managers they can be.” Throughout 2014 Shred School will be in 10 cities, including eight new locations. NAID staff developed new curriculum to add to the current agenda, including LinkedIn prospecting, relationship building, online advertising and mistakes to avoid making in the industry. The NAID Sales Mastermind Groups are designed to reinforce the strategies of Shred School while providing secure destruction professionals with personalized sales coaching. Groups will be market exclusive and meet twice a month to discuss a variety of issues.
Insurance Policy Cancellations Illegal, Advises ObamaCare Expert
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Phone:262.882.1227 Fax: 262.882.3389 www.bomaccarts.com Info Request #133
10 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
ashington, D.C. — Along with the Obamacare program launch, millions of insurance policy cancellations have occurred that never should have, says one expert cited in a report on Communities.WashingtonTimes.com. Existing federal law prohibits such cancellations, C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance and Obamacare expert in Illinois. Public Law 104-191 was written and passed by Congress in 1997 to protect Americans with serious illnesses and individuals with open claims from having their insurance policies cancelled, Tucker told the Washington Times in December. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Section 2742, he explained, outlawed such cancellations in 1997 and no legislation has been enacted to supersede that law. Approximately 14 million policies purchased after ObamaCare was passed are not grandfathered. Tucker warns that, as a result, the cancellations will continue to confuse the American public. Tucker has been advising people to contact their state governors or state Attorneys General offices if they believe their health insurers have violated their rights.
In the News Focus More on Privacy Issues, HHS tells OCR
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ashington, D.C. — An article on FierceHealthIT.com reports that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is calling for stronger enforcement of HIPAA privacy provisions. The HHS’ Inspector General report, released in late 2013, says the Office for Civil Rights must strengthen its audit efforts. In particular, the IG calls on the OCR to: • improve its risk assessment activities with priorities and controls, • conduct periodic compliance audits, • set controls for supervisory review and document retention to ensure the Security Rule investigation policies and procedures are followed, and • implement the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management Framework. The IG report faults the OCR’s audits for focusing too much on information processing and storage system interoperability issues and not paying enough attention to patient privacy. In its defense, the OCR says that the audit pilot program was limited due to funding shortfalls. Leon Rodriguez, OCR director, speaking at a Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Privacy and Security Forum in Boston, addressed his agency’s handling of audits. The permanent HIPAA auditing program slated to begin in 2014 will be narrower in scope than the 2012 auditing pilot program, he noted. To help lift some of the burden from the OCR, HHS has offered guidance and technical assistance to covered entities, as well as the covered business associates.
Large HIPAA Breaches on the Rise
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ashington, D.C. — HIPAA experts say a new rule should help cut patient information breaches, more than half of which are traced to business associates, reports CSOonline.com. Protected Health Information (PHI) breaches are down 77 percent overall, but the occurrences of large breaches has increased by 21.5 percent, according to a study released early this year by IT security auditing vendor Redspin. The so-called “large breaches” – those involving more than 500 records – went up between 2011 and 2012, from 121 to 146 violations. The total number of breaches for the same period decreased substantially from 10.6 million to 2.4 million. This dynamic, according to Dan Berger, president and CEO of Redspin, could be misleading because one catastrophic breach, such as the Advocate Health breach of more than 4 million in July 2013, can throw off the numbers. A stolen laptop was the cause of that breach, which significantly topped the largest breach of 2012 – 780,000 records from the Utah Department of Health. In October 2013, two password-protected laptops stolen from AHMC Healthcare Inc. contained 729,000 records of patient data alone. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule update requires custodians of PHI to make sure the data is “unusable, unreadable and undecipherable” by any unauthorized parties. Redspin expects this rule to curb the number of, and damage from, data breaches. The rule requires encryption on all portable devices (a third of all large breaches to date were caused by the loss or theft of portable devices). Overall, HIPAA compliance has made a positive impact on data safety, but there’s disagreement on where to go from here. The flexible nature of the business world is increasing, and a number of industry insiders say greater attention needs to be paid to bringing mobile device security up to the level of credit card protection. Because of the number of breaches occurring due to mobile device thefts, employee and contractor training is essential, but accountability is key, observers say. Encryption will not protect patient information if a laptop, for example, is stolen when it is powered up with software running and databases open – and neither will excuses for not being more careful.
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Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013 11
In the News NAID Sets Launch Date for Online CSDS Training
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AID has announced that it will offer an online Certified Secure Destruction Specialist (CSDS) training program that prepares individuals for the CSDS exam. Over the first three years of the CSDS Accreditation Program, training in preparation for the exam included access to sample test questions and a webinar series. Now the association has an interactive Web-based training program it says will be convenient and effective. The fee for the online training course is $99; however, all training fees can be applied to the CSDS examination fee of $279. The course will replace the webinar series used for training in previous years. “The concept is simple and sure to make studying the program content easier,” said Director of Certification Operations Katie Mahoney, who administers the CSDS training, exam and continuing education units. As the online training is updated in the future, each question will include background reading and links to allow trainees to develop a thorough understanding of the issues. Once launched, those who register for CSDS training will be given access to an online training tool that will allow them to test their knowledge of the issues regularly. “It’s essentially an online test that will show people where they stand and what they need to study,” said Mahoney. CSDS exams will be held on a regional basis across the U.S. and Canada between January and March 2014, culminating in a final testing opportunity at the NAID 2014 Annual Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 4.
attention: readers!
Would you like more information about products and equipment advertised in this issue? If so, please complete the Equipment Locator Service form located between pages 8 & 9 and fax to 440-257-6459.
European Parliament Turns Down Recycled Paper Law
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trasbourg, Germany — The European Parliament voted down a proposal to redefine waste paper as “recycled paper” before it is recycled, reports PackagingEurope.com. Parliament’s decision is being lauded by the paper industry as saving more than 150,000 green jobs. The new classification would have relaxed the EU’s waste management rules, which industry experts say would have made it easier to sell recyclable paper to Asia. The EU’s long-term investment in obtaining the amount of waste needed to recycle for producing quality product is still on track and the industry’s mood has been upbeat. Had the proposed legislation passed, paper recycling in Europe likely would have dropped from about 47 million tons per year to 37 million tons, leading to closures of mills, including many small and medium-sized operators, according to the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). Teresa Presas, CEPI Director General explains the reason for the industry’s celebratory mood. “If this proposal had become law it would have burdened the global environment with needless additional energy use and emissions. It’s a good decision.” “We are delighted that the voice of reason has finally emerged,” explains Jori Ringman-Beck, CEPI Recycling and Product Director. “We now hope that the Commission’s environmental protection department will reflect on the content of this resolution and revise the criteria for determining when used paper is waste and when it’s not.” Aligning waste and recycled paper classifications with market reality is an issue to be considered in the future.
Cintas Study Finds Two Thirds of U.S. Adults Would Not Return to a Business Where Their Personal Information was Stolen
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membership@mobileshreddingassociation.com www.mobileshreddingassociation.com
recent study commissioned by Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) and conducted online by Harris Interactive® revealed that two thirds of U.S. adults would not return to a business if their personal information was stolen. The research, conducted in August among 2,061 adults ages 18 and older, provides insight into what types of businesses consumers would most likely stop patronizing if their confidential information was stolen. “With every data breach comes a cost, including lost productivity, a damaged reputation, and most importantly, decreased revenue when customers take their business elsewhere,” said John Otten, Marketing Manager, Cintas. “This research confirms that by failing to make security a priority, businesses can discourage onceloyal customers from returning. It could also stop potential customers from ever patronizing your business.” When asked which types of organizations patrons would stop doing business with if their personal data were compromised, U.S. adults reported: • 55 percent would change banks • 46 percent would switch insurance companies • 42 percent would go to a different drug store/pharmacy • 40 percent would get a new doctor or dentist • 39 percent would get a new lawyer • 38 percent would donate to a different charity/non-profit organization • 35 percent would not return to their hospital • 24 percent would no longer donate to their alma mater or another educational institution they attended “Businesses must be proactive in protecting data by using secure document management solutions that guard confidential business, employee and customer information,” Otten added. “By partnering with a document management provider, companies can implement a customized, secure solution that will help ensure information is protected at all times.” This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Cintas from August 27-29, 2013 among 2,061 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
12 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
In the News Membership Numbers Reveal 80 Percent Growth in North America
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espite a maturing marketplace and slow economic recovery, NAID continued its 20 years of membership growth in 2013 by adding 156 new member locations between January and November. “Given the market conditions, the association’s growth speaks to the resilience of the industry and the association’s growing relevance,” said NAID President Tom Huth of Allshred Services, Inc. “It’s good to see NAID’s continued exploration of new ways to serve our members and the industry is being recognized.” Statistically speaking, approximately 80 percent of new members are based in North America. Approximately 30 percent of new members also provide electronic destruction and IT asset management services. The electronic destruction sector of membership is expected to grow steadily over the next few years. NAID currently has more than 2,000 member locations worldwide. In September, the association reached another milestone when the number of NAID certified locations exceeded 1,000. The NAID AAA Certification Program helps organizations meet their regulatory requirements of verifying the qualifications of the service providers handling private information. “The growing amount of participation in various markets demonstrates the strength of the program,” said NAID Director of Certification Katie Mahoney.
Freightways Beefs Up Document Destruction Services
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uckland, New Zealand — Auckland-based Freightways has announced the purchase of two document shredding firms, Docushred and Advance Security Destruction Services for a total of $13 million, according to a report on NZHerald.co.nz. Docushred will further extend the geographic reach of Freightways’ New Zealand business, Document Destruction Services, while the Australia-based Advance will serve as an anchor for Freightways’ New South Wales business. Freightways is New Zealand’s largest courier and data management company. The acquisition is anticipated to add $6 million in annual revenue and about $2.5 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. In addition, the company purchased Brisbane-based Document & Data Storage Management and Dunedin-based Document Destruction Services. Strengthening its information management capabilities through alliances or new acquisitions will continue, says Frieghtways’ managing director, Dean Bracewell. Freightways’ $406 million in annual sales and EBITDA of $77 million in the year ended June 30, 2013; the information management unit contributed $100 million to revenue and $23 million to earnings. Company stock, at the end of 2013, was rated an average `hold’ based on six analyst recommendations compiled by Reuters, with a median target price of $4.38.
Cintas Releases Study on the Security of Document Shredding Practices
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intas and Ponemon Institute recently announced the results of a study on the Security of Document Shredding Services. The purpose of the study was to determine current practices to secure sensitive documents during the shredding and destruction process. In this study, 705 individuals responsible for making decisions about the use of document shredding services for their company were surveyed. The following are the key findings from this research: • One-third of respondents do not have a policy for the secure destruction of confidential documents. • Among those respondents who say their organization has a policy, more than half (51 percent) say it does not cover the secure destruction of hard drives. • While more than half (55 percent) train their employees on the secure disposal of confidential documents, only 38 percent say they are confident that the training helps ensure the secure disposal of confidential documents. • The primary reason for using an outside shredding service to destroy and shred confidential information is because respondents believe it is more effective than relying on employees to properly shred and/or destroy confidential information. • The most important characteristics of vendors engaged to shred confidential documents are: convenience, reputation and responsiveness to urgent needs or requests. “Based on Ponemon Institute research, organizations that do not take precautions to dispose of confidential documents securely face the likelihood of a data breach,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. “Our recommendation is that organizations establish clear guidelines and policies for the destruction of sensitive documents and consider using a professional service such as Cintas to make sure thieves cannot steal confidential business and personal information.”
Taiwan’s Recycling Peaks
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aipei, Taiwan — Taiwan is riding high as the world’s biggest recycler, according to a New York Times article reported on www.UPI.com. According to the industry trade association, Formosa Association of Resource Recycling, Taiwan’s recycling business boom is being fed by an equally burgeoning electronics industry. Gold and other valuable metals are being extracted from electronics devices and components at the highest rates in history. This has sent the recycling sector’s growth surging to 20 times what it was as the new century began. “Recycling became huge because of the electronics firms,” said Chen Wei-Hsian, secretary-general of the trade organization. “That is why it’s grown from about 100 recycling outfits to over 2,000.” Recyclers reported revenues last year of about 65.8 billion Taiwan dollars ($2.2 billion USD) compared to nearly 25 billion Taiwan dollars ($842 million USD) 10 years earlier. One recycling company has been considering changing its main focus to gold trading since it has found it can harvest gold that is 99.99 percent pure from discarded electronics.
www.chachkagroup.com chachka@chachkagroup.com
Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013 13
Security Shredding & Storage News
Are You Playing To Win Or Not To Lose With Your Shredding Business?
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by Jay Wallus
t was one of those moments when you realize that some business people just get it. There I was with my 5-year-old daughter Jayna in 2005 standing outside of the new Jordan’s Furniture in Reading Mass. We had just gotten something to eat and we wanted to go in and see what Barry and Elliott had come up with this time. These stores were a lot more than just furniture stores in the traditional sense. They were stores that when you went into them, you just got a certain feeling about what these two guys were all about. They had taken a commodity –furniture - and turned the shopping for it into an absolute experience. Did you know that their five New England stores sell more furniture per square foot than any other furniture retailer in the USA? Quite an accomplishment – huh? Well, I think that it’s important for all of you (especially those of you outside of New England) to know a little bit about their story before I continue on – so I took this directly from their website: Jordan’s Furniture Company is the country’s all-time, undisputed, retailfurniture Success Story. The statistics, citations and awards speak for themselves – Retailer of the Year awards from many industry and trade groups; appearances on Best Places to Work lists; the Tri-State Home Furnishings Association’s “Guerrilla Marketer of the Year”award. In 1963, Eliot became actively involved in the company, with Barry following a few years later. The winning combination of the two brothers working together pushed sales volume well beyond predictions, turning a local furniture store into a major retailer, with customers from all over New England. Realizing the dreams of their father and grandfather, the doors to our second store were opened on February 12, 1984. The success of Nashua quickly sent Barry and Eliot looking for a larger central warehouse facility and a third location. Our Avon flagship superstore and warehouse opened January 31, 1987. Avon became a huge success from day one because shoppers were treated with respect and furniture shopping became a fun experience - thanks to our fabulous Motion Odyssey Movie (MOM) ride and our commitment to making Raving Fans of our customers and employees! In November of 1999, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. purchased Jordan’s Furniture. Barry and Eliot remain integral parts of virtually every aspect of Jordan’s Furniture. “We are very excited about this venture. Berkshire Hathaway and Jordan’s are a perfect fit. Our growth potential is huge with the financial support of Berkshire Hathaway,” said Barry. Jayna and I walked into this new store and were immediately greeted by someone who thanked us for coming. As we walked around and looked at all of the different attractions that were there to entertain the shopper (an ice cream shop, IMAX Theater, liquid fireworks and an actual trapeze that you can take a swing on to name a few), we actually saw Barry (Jayna recognized him from the commercials) speaking with a visitor. We walked over and heard him talk about the store and how proud he and his brother were about how it came out. When he was done chatting, he simply turned and watched as a child took their turn on the trapeze. The child had that scared but excited look on their face as they jumped off of the stand and swung back and forth. As the child was swinging you could hear her scream: “Mom, I did it!” What struck
me was that Barry seemed to be enjoying watching the girl swing just as much as the little girl. When the girl got off – he walked over and asked her if she had fun and thanked both her and her mom for coming. Then it hit me. Shouldn’t this guy be running around like crazy making sure that everything is ok? Why wasn’t he “swamped” with the opening of the new store? Why wasn’t he “so busy” with all of the paperwork? After all, there had to be kinks that had to be worked out – right? WRONG. Now, granted, when he and his brother ran the store in the early 80’s they probably did a lot of the “busy” work. However, they got away from it as soon as they could and they never made it their job. That wonderful store and all of the happy clients that it creates – would never have materialized if those two brothers had continued to ignore the big picture and tell people that they should do outrageous things to grow their small furniture store – but they can’t because they’re “so busy”. No happy kids, no money donated to the Jimmy Fund with the profits from the attractions and No IMAX theater for Jayna and I to go to to see The Polar Express. Why am I bringing this up, you ask? I’ll tell you why. When you play small – nobody wins. When you play small in your shredding business and your life the world gets cheated. Where would we be if Bill Gates, Martin Luther King, Oprah or my beloved Red Sox thought small? Thinking and playing big is what gets people excited. Thinking and playing big is what changes the way the world works. Thinking and playing big is when you can go home at the end of the day and truly know that you’re doing something that will really make a difference. It’s an absolute shame when I see business owners and salespeople in the shredding industry going through the motions. I constantly hear things like: I can’t do the things that I know will build revenue for my company because: • of all of the paperwork • of all of the competition • the industry is changing • I need more time in a day If you’ve ever said these things, I’d like you to remember that famous saying: “You can fool all of the people some of the time or you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can never fool all of the people all of the time” - and - most of all, you can never fool yourself. So, go out there and play big: with your family, your relationships and your career. Good Luck! Jay Wallus began his selling career the hard way 24 years ago when he was hired to head out to the streets of Boston and dig up business by door-to-door cold calling in the office equipment industry. He quickly rose to be one of the top sales reps in the country...not because of his great closing skills but because he thought “out of the box” and developed truly creative processes for accomplishing two things critical to growing anyone’s sales: filling the sales funnel and having potential clients get back to you.
14 Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013
Security Shredding & Storage News
Conference Brings Together Document Shredding & Medical Waste Companies By P.J. Heller
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embers of the document destruction and medical waste industries had an opportunity recently to come together to share ideas and hear and learn how they could expand their markets at a unique inaugural conference. The first-ever Security Shredding and Medical Waste Conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored by trade publications Security Shredding & Storage News and Medical Waste Management, drew some 200 attendees from throughout the U.S.. Also on hand were more than two dozen exhibitors from the document destruction and medical waste industry who showcased everything from routing software to shred trucks. The conference was aimed at helping businesses generate new revenue and increase profitability, as well as move into new markets. “It was a very entrepreneurial show,” says show director Tim Fearney. “There were companies looking to improve their own businesses as well as looking at ways to branch out into other areas.” The three-day conference Nov. 10-12 at the Omni Orlando Resort featured talks by leading industry professionals on document destruction topics ranging from obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to best practices for shredding companies. Topics dealing with medical waste ranged from pharmaceutical waste collection to understanding U.S. Transportation Department regulations and procedures for shipping and transporting hazardous waste. Panel discussions were also held. Most presentations are available online to attendees and exhibitors. Popular keynote speaker Jay Wallus, director of sales and marketing at
DataShredder, provided attendees his “outrageously effective ways to get in touch with hard-to-reach decision makers.” The size of the show allowed attendees, most of whom operate small businesses, to easily network with each other and with the exhibitors, Fearney says. “They were able to concentrate more on the real issues and problems that are facing their companies,” he says. “From the conversations I had and the surveys I saw, the biggest takeaway for the attendees was that there are other avenues they can be looking at to expand their businesses,” he says. Shred companies that service hospital and medical facilities, for example, could expand into the medical waste and recycling arenas. “They could become a one-stop shop for their customers,” he says, noting that customers often prefer dealing with one dependable and reliable vendor rather than multiple vendors. Based on the response to the trade show — “the feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive, which is really gratifying especially on a launch event like this,” Fearney says — plans are underway for another show in 2014. The date and location are still being worked out. “Moving forward, we hope to expand the program to talk about other types of waste and recycling,” Fearney says. “We want to be a conference that focuses on the operations of shredding and medical waste companies and helps them to build their businesses.”
Product/Equipment Profiles Allegheny Introduces New Hard Drive / E-Scrap Shredder
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llegheny Shredders announced its newest destruction solution: the Allegheny 12HD7.5 Hard Drive/E-Scrap Shredder. This powerful, compact machine securely destroys hard drives, e-scrap, optical media, mobile devices, laptop computers, and other databearing media. With its 12” x 2” opening, its 7.5 Hp motor can destroy two hard drives at a time. The 12HD7.5 shredder is heavy duty, built to last like all Allegheny equipment. It will quickly destroy any hard drives, computers, or e-scrap that can fit inside; handling high volumes while leaving a small footprint. It’s the ideal solution for e-scrap recyclers, information destruction service providers, and Records & Information Management centers. In short, it’s priced right, sized right, and will get the job done well for any company that needs to securely, quickly destroy sensitive information. Features of the Allegheny 12HD7.5 Hard Drive/E-Scrap Shredder: • Swift destruction of hard drives, server drives, mobile devices, e-scrap, laptop computers (without batteries), and more • Compact, heavy duty machine with small footprint; mounted on casters for easy mobility • Opportunity for service providers and RIM centers to add an additional, reliable income stream • Can be installed in a truck for mobile on-site destruction Allegheny also offers the 12HD20 shredder, with a 20 Hp motor. Another powerful machine that comes with an optional in-feed conveyor allowing the operator to dump a box of hard drives into the hopper, and watch the variable speed conveyor deliver the shredder. For more information on Allegheny Shredders’ full line of rugged American-made equipment, contact Allegheny at: 800-245-2497, 724-468-4300, solutions@alleghenyshredders.com or visit www.alleghenyshredders.com.
Security Shredding & Storage News. November / December 2013 15
IS YOUR RECYCLER CERTIFIED? Do the right thing. Work with an R2/RIOS™- certified facility. The R2/RIOS™ difference is that reuse and recycling are the primary objectives in the lifecycle of electronics. This means fewer materials are sent to landfills. Further, R2/RIOS™ helps protect the environment by extending the life of equipment, parts and components. Tested, functional equipment is sent back into the marketplace for reuse. Each certified facility aims to protect a customer’s brand by: •
Requiring proper data destruction to wipe out confidential information
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Holding the highest standards for data protection, such as those mandated by HIPAA regulations
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Offering the sole program that combines quality, environmental, health and safety requirements into a single management system
As a company partnering with an R2/RIOS™-certified facility, you can have the confidence your electronics are being recycled with the highest regard for the environment and the health and safety of employees and the public. www.certifymerecycling.org/partner To find an R2/RIOS™-certified partner, visit: certifymerecycling.org/partner. www.certifymerecycling.org/partner