It was either spend north of $10K (remember, this is gov't. purchasing) on new file cabinets or go through the files and see what was older than the records reteention requirement. No great earth-shattering souper-seekret stuff, just purchasing orders and payment vouchers. A week-long project (which aklso proved that the organization would not come to a screeching halt if more than two people were away from their desk at any given time).
Not one but two craptons (English, not metric) of paper pulled and designated for disposal/destruction. Let the bidding begin!
Rent-A-Shredder was lowest but would require staff to stand there and feed stuff at no more than 10 sheets at a time, no staples/paper clips/binder clips allowed. Commercial shredder truck is the middle bid but will not allow an employee to witness the actual shredding (a requirement of the Records Retention Act). Guy with a past-service life cement mixer that will pulp everything and then haul it away to be spread at the landfill. He hints that the price could be adjusted downwards if he could pick which file clerk rides with him to witness the pouring of paper pulp. We have a file clerk who was black belt in "I'll rip your lungs out and then make you beg for a quick death" (which the cement-mixer guy did not know about) who he says will bring his bid within 5% of Rent-A-Shreder and is willing to have a day away from the office even if it does involve about half an hour at the landfill.
Inmate work party hoists paperwork from the ground into the hopper. Pulping begins. Three hours later the department head brings everybody out back for a pizza party with the destruction witness (could not stop witnessing to go to lunch). Another two hours of pulping and then off to the landfill. Destruction witness takes pictures of the slurry spread, returns to the office and gets to leave 1 1/2 hours early without loss of pay.
Word spreads through the HQ building. Cement-mixer guy gets so much business he's busy 5 days a week for the summer
All of which could have been avoided by spending maybe an hour each month pulling no-longer-needed-for-retention paperwork and putting it through the big shredder in the basement.
stay safe.
