For other organizations, however, especially those with open litigation cases, data destruction is a tightly controlled process, most often dictated by the policies established by the company's legal department. For example, Harold Shapiro, director and technology architect, management information services at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., says he's required to hold on to some tapes forever.

Another company, Data Killers, a division of Turtle Wings Inc., an electronics recycling center in Capitol Heights, MD, operates a 6,600 lb., four-shaft shredder that can shred approximately 1,000 lbs. of metal and plastic per hour. The shredding process not only cuts and shreds metal but, by forcing it through cutters and screens, compresses and compacts it, rendering it completely unrecoverable, claims the company.