Safely Destroy and Recycle Sensitive Documents at the Spring Shred Event

Bring tax forms, bank statements, credit reports and any other documents you want safely shredded to McMicken Commons Thursday, April 23, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. for the Office of Information Security's triannual Shred Event.

The free event is hosted by UC's Office of Information Security (OIS) with help from Document Destruction, a local company that will securely shred and recycle the sensitive materials. 

Located within University of Cincinnati Information Technologies, OIS stands to protect and secure university data – including student, faculty and staff information. Sometimes, the best way to protect old data is to destroy it.

The first shred event was in June 2012, where participants from 33 departments within UC submitted 18,680 pounds of documents for shredding and recycling. 

In the 2015 Spring Shred announcement video, Geoff Costa, an information security officer, spoofs Matthew McConaughey’s recent Lincoln commercial – which shows the actor musing dramatically about some of the environmental benefits of driving the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid car.

“It’s not about hugging trees. It’s not about being wasteful minded,” Costa said in the OIS video, as he mimicked McConaughey. “You’ve got to find that balance. When taking care of your information, take care of more than just your information.”

OIS not only wants to ensure participants that their data is protected, but that it is also destroyed in a way that doesn’t hurt the environment.

“Your data is your responsibility,” Costa said in an interview. “It’s also your responsibility to make sure you aren’t hurting the environment when you are getting rid of it.” 

All metal, including paper clips and hanging file folders, must be removed before dropping off documents to shred. Staples can remain on the documents, but all plastic needs to be removed as well. Anything that can’t be torn isn’t allowed. 

Find out more information about next week’s Spring Shred Event on the OIS website, and watch the announcement video here.