Papermaking machinery at the Crown Zellerbach mill in Lebanon, Oregon, 1947. This mill produced paper products for nearly a century, from 1889 until 1980. Recycled university records are made into new paper products by similar mills. [OSU Archives P216.]
OSU Campus Recycling program, Spring 1991. Since 1991 OSU's Campus Recycling program has evolved into one of the premier recycling programs among the state's colleges and universities. The program coordinates disposal of both confidential and non-confidential university records that are eligible for destruction. [OSU Archives P94 Acc. 96:083.]
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For more information about how to contact the OSU Archives, please visit our Location, Hours, & Staff Information page.
Chapter 3 Records Management — Services to Departments
Personnel Files Maintenance and Access
The central purpose of the University Records Retention and Disposition Schedule is to prescribe the length of time that records created or received by the University must be retained and when they must be destroyed. At the end of their retention period, non-permanent records must, by law, be disposed of promptly and properly to avoid unnecessary interference with the conduct of current office functions. An important secondary function of the schedule is to make departmental Records Management Officers (RMOs) aware of record series that might possibly contain confidential information. A Confidential Destruction notation is located in a box at the end of the selected record series dispositions throughout the university records schedule.
Here is an example:
CONFIDENTIAL DESTRUCTION: Records in this series containing confidential information should be destroyed by pulping, shredding, or incineration. See the OSU Archives and Records Management Handbook for more information.
Disposing of Confidential Records
A significant quantity of records created and received by the University contain confidential information elements such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, and other personal privacy information. If university records contain confidential information, their removal from the office and their destruction must receive special care.
Oregon Administrative Rules recognize the need for special care in disposing of records containing confidential information; OAR 166-30-060(2) stipulates that "Records which are confidential by law… must be destroyed by shredding, pulping, or incineration." The University Records Retention and Disposition Schedule attempts to assist the Records Management Officer (RMO) in identifying records series that contain confidential and privacy information by use of the confidential destruction note.
In order to make the destruction of confidential records both convenient and reliable, the Oregon State University Campus Recycling Program provides services for offices needing to destroy paper records or microforms which contain information that may be confidential. For paper records that contain confidential information, Campus Recycling offers secure confidential records destruction service to all departments on campus, currently at a cost of 15¢ per pound. Records to be destroyed must be packed into either a photocopy paper box, a box with a lid the size of a photocopy paper box or a records storage/pulping box. New records storage/pulping boxes are available from Boise Cascade (part #E5-93766/stock #401) for about $1.50 each (the price varies slightly from order to order), and can be ordered in lots of 25. Used records storage boxes are available from Campus Recycling for 50¢ each.
An alternative to using many boxes when an office has a large quantity of confidential records to be destroyed is to use a locking 30-gallon or 90-gallon green cart. Campus Recycling will furnish these as requested, either for a temporary "cleaning out" period of time, or for continuous use. When the cart is full, lock it with the padlock attached to the cart, and contact Campus Recycling for a pick up. After the records have been picked up, Campus Recycling stores them in locked metal containers until they are picked up and destroyed by the Garten Foundation.
Each box or green cart should be clearly marked "TO BE SHREDDED" and labeled with the following information: office name, name and telephone number of a contact person, and the index code to be charged. Standard labels to fit the green carts or to attach to boxes are available from Campus Recycling. Because the boxes must eventually be emptied and reused, Campus Recycling prefers that you do not apply tape to the boxes. If you must apply tape, please use only a small amount. Please do not overfill the boxes.
If you have less than 20 boxes, please call Campus Freight (7-4019) for a pickup. If you have 20 or more boxes, please call Campus Recycling (7-2925 or e-mail recycle@oregonstate.edu) to make arrangements for a pickup. On the Web, Campus Recycling has a form that you can use to request a special pickup, including confidential recycling.
If you or your staff have any questions about the OSU confidential records destruction program, please contact the Recycling Coordinator at 7-2925 or e-mail recycle@oregonstate.edu.
Disposing of Microforms
Campus Recycling provides a service for the confidential destruction of microfilm and microfiche. Please send your microfiche or microfilm which contain confidential information to Campus Recycling in an envelope or box clearly marked "TO BE SHREDDED - MICROFORMS" and labeled with the following information: office name, name and telephone number of a contact person, and the index code to be charged. If you use the standard labels from Campus Recycling, please add the word "Microform" to the label. The microforms will be accumulated and sent to the Garten Foundation where they will be incinerated at the current charge of $1.00 per pound. There are currently no recycling alternatives for the diazo based microforms which do not contain confidential information; please dispose of these in the trash.
Paper Shredders
An office shredder may superficially appear to be a good solution to the problem of destroying small quantities of confidential paper records. However, the University Archives strongly discourages the purchase of mechanical shredders. While paper shredders may appear to be an inexpensive method of disposal, they are labor-intensive and prone to malfunction. Shredded paper is more trouble to recycle because it is bulky and expensive to ship. Since the paper fibers are cut during the shredding process, shredded paper can be recycled fewer times than sheet paper.
Disposing of Non-Confidential Records
Records that contain no confidential information should be recycled. Campus Recycling collects office paper products for appropriate recycling and can pick up boxed records to be recycled. There are currently no recycling alternatives for the diazo based microforms which do not contain confidential information; please dispose of these in the trash.
Bag stands and boxes for paper recycling are located near every employee on campus. There are separate bags for two of the most common recyclable grades of paper. Campus recycling can also furnish upon request either a 30-gallon green cart, or for larger clean out projects, 90-gallon green carts that can be used for recyclable paper. In addition, any material which is shredded may also be collected in a bag to be recycled.
Disposing of Non-Record Materials
Certain Oregon statutes and administrative rules identify materials that may be purged from files without further authorization or reference to the OSU General Records Retention Schedule. Non-record materials should be promptly removed from departmental files when no longer needed for reference. Either recycle or dispose of them as trash.
Examples of Non-Record Materials
- Library Materials: Includes books, pamphlets, circulars, newsletters, brochures, catalogs, advertisements, and similar published material. Also included a bibliographies, directories, and tabulations or compilations of information made or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes.
- Extra Copies: Copies created and preserved only for reference convenience.
- Excess Stock: Includes both excess stock of publications and forms.
- Duplication Masters: Includes stencils, mats, dictation recordings if fully transcribed, tab cards, punched tape, punched cards, and magnetic recording media created and used solely for transfer of data from one medium to another, such as CD-ROMs, disks and floppy disks.
- Individual Employees' Memberships: Files accumulated as a result of an individual employee's membership in professional, occupational, service, or community organizations, associations or clubs, if they are paid for by the individual. If the institution pays, they are university records and subject to the retention schedule guidelines.
- Duplicated records: Records which have been duplicated in another format, such as paper records that have been microfilmed, if the duplicate is retained as record copy and its accuracy has been verified. Duplicates include photographs, micrographs, and other reproduction forms on paper, film, or computer-readable format.
