Tape destruction
Old or defective backup tapes, such as DLT or LTO tapes, must be destructed in a trusted and secure manner. The best way to do this is by shredding the tapes into small fragments. This ensures that your company information is 100% and permanently destructed.
We destroy tapes by shredding them, including collection at your premises and a destruction declaration with full registration. A single cartridge easily holds years of complete backups: customer records, personnel files, financial administration. As long as that tape exists, so does the data. We collect the cartridges, make them unrecoverable and record exactly what happened.
Why destroy backup tapes?
Destroying backup tapes becomes necessary as soon as the retention period has passed, because the GDPR requires you to delete personal data once you no longer need it. Tapes usually serve as deep storage: old archives you rarely touch and keep for years. That is precisely why they often hold more than anyone remembers, from administration to patient files.
Erasing or overwriting is not the same as destroying. An overwritten tape looks exactly like a full one from the outside, so there is nothing you can demonstrate. In an audit, that is the difference between a declaration and an assumption. How we handle other media is set out on our page about data destruction.
How we destroy your old tapes
This is how you can have your old tapes destroyed by Whale IT Recycling. Straightforward, and this way you know for certain that your data can never be recovered.
1. On-site collection
We collect your old tapes at your location and package them in lockable crates.
2. Direct transport
We transport your old tapes directly to the demolition facility, without any stops.
3. Secure storage
Your tapes are immediately stored in a locked room with electronic access control and video surveillance.
4. Destruction within 48 hours
Your tapes are registered and shredded within two working days.
5. Destruction certificate
You will receive a demolition certificate including a registration of the delivered tapes.
Are the tapes not allowed to leave the building? Then we carry out the destruction on site.
The best method for destroying backup tapes
Shredding is the only method that delivers a visible, demonstrable result. The three ways of tackling tape data destruction, side by side:
- Overwriting: takes a lot of time per cartridge, and from the outside you cannot check whether it worked
- Magnetic erasure: depends on field strength and the right setting, and leaves no visible result
- Shredding: after that, the cartridge is simply no longer a data carrier
With hard drives, wiping is a serious option, because the drive stays reusable. See the difference between hard drive wiping and hard drive destruction. With a tape, wiping gains you nothing, which makes shredding the logical choice.
After shredding, the material goes to a waste-to-energy plant. Tape material cannot be recycled, but by recovering energy from it, it still counts as useful application.
Which tapes and cartridges do we destroy?
Most business tape formats come our way: LTO in every generation, DLT, DAT and DDS, loose cartridges and video or audio tapes from old archives. An LTO cartridge has a tough housing that lighter equipment simply cannot get through, and surface damage is not destruction. That calls for industrial machinery.
Are there hard drives, USB sticks or CDs in the batch as well? Those can come along in the same load, no sorting required. This service is intended for companies and institutions.
Certified provider for tape destruction
Whale Recycling is WEEELABEX-certified, works to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 and is registered as a VIHB waste carrier under number 542205VIHB. Behind us stands Krommenhoek Metals, a family business that has been in recycling since 1925. The destruction declaration you receive is suitable for your audit file and for ESG reporting. Having hardware taken away alongside your tapes? That goes in the same appointment, so one party and one set of documents.
Support a good cause
Whale IT Recycling is a friend of the Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital. When you have your backup tapes destroyed by Whale, you support this wonderful cause as standard. For every data carrier we shred, we donate €0.10 to the Sophia Children’s Hospital. Besides that small donation per shredded data carrier, we also give our customers the option to donate the residual value of written-off hardware to Sophia. If you choose to donate that residual value, we increase the donation by 10%. Take a look at our campaign page for more information.
