You can buy paper shredders at discount department stores or even at some drug/convenience stores. Industrial shredders are sold over the Internet and at major office supply companies throughout the nation.

        Now, paper shredders are everywhere; though three decades ago, only a handful of office supply companies sold shredders, and few companies and executives went to those lengths to destroy records.

        Now, “Shredding is pretty much across the board,” said Linda Contadino, owner of SmartShred, a Blue Ash company founded three years ago that offers on-site confidential document destruction.

        “You hear about drugstore records blowing out of Dumpsters. Dumpster-diving is becoming a common thing. There are accidents where records are strewn on the highway. On-site shredding is definitely becoming more popular.”

        The industry became a focus after Andersen and Enron executives apparently fired up the shredders last fall after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was going to review Enron operations.

        Enron, based in Houston, is the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history. Guards are now on-site to ensure that no more documents that investigators might need are destroyed at the troubled energy giant.

        Intellectual property theft, loss of trade secrets from competitors legally raiding trash bins, and fear of criminals have also led more and more companies to destroy confidential records. These days, individuals are also aggressively shredding.

        “The No. 1 public fear is identity theft, and we've served a lot of people in Cincinnati who have had that happen to them,” Ms. Contadino said. “You'd be shocked. It happens regularly.”

        Improper document destruction is a high-stakes game and can carry significant risks for a company or individual, said Earle Jay Maiman, trial lawyer for Thompson Hine LLP, a Cincinnati-based law firm with offices throughout Ohio, in Washington and Belgium.

        If there is pending or probable litigation, shredding can lead to damages if the shredder knew it, he said.

        On the other hand, he said, some document shredding is warranted, such as when companies need to dispose of documents with personal information or when paper records are converted onto microfiche.

        “People say shredding documents is a horrible thing, but the truth of the matter is that it occurs for a very appropriate purpose,” he said.

Web reduces volume

        The Web has enabled many companies to avoid shredding because it reduces the volume of paper at firms.

        For instance, document shredding occurs far less at GE Aircraft Engines than in the past, said Rick Kennedy, spokesman for the Evendale-based jet engine company.

        “Everything is online — internal Web sites with password protection,” Mr. Kennedy said.

        Cinergy Corp. has a document retention policy that follows industry standards and has had shredders for more than 20 years, said Steve Brash, spokesman for the regional diversified energy company that employs about 8,000.

        “As a matter of course, we ask employees to destroy drafts of documents, notes and other pieces of correspondence that would not fall within context of retention policy,” Mr. Brash said.

        Frank J. Albi, president of Business Information Solutions, a records control company founded in 1980 that provides off-site storage and disposal of expired business records, said shredding might be less common than people realize.

        For instance, he said, his company usually sends outdated documents to paper recyclers, where materials become pulp for recycled paper.

        “We tell our customers to keep only what is required and to dispose of the rest,” he said. “When in doubt, pitch it out. Unnecessary stored records can only hurt you. They can't help you.”

        About 2 percent of Business Information Solutions' records are shredded, he said, because shredding is more costly than recycling. Canceled checks, invoices and purchase orders are common types of documents that are discarded.

        The number of companies involved in shredding sensitive documents has grown dramatically in recent years, said Robert Johnson, executive director of the National Association for Information Destruction, a trade association of shredding and information destruction companies founded in 1992 and based in Phoenix.

        The group has 250 members. Five years ago, it had 100.

        One reason for the increase: Companies are becoming increasingly aware that corporate spies are, apparently, everywhere.

        “There is an industry of competitive intelligence professionals, and the number of companies in that field has grown exponentially in recent years,” he said.

        Incidents of Dumpster-diving may be commonplace, but they are also embarrassing and can be costly for companies involved. In September, the Procter & Gamble Co. paid a reported $10 million to rival Unilever after the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant found that a P&G contractor had rifled through Unilever trash in April.

        Ms. Contadino's client list offers more insight into the new world of document disposal.

        Among the local companies and agencies that have contracted with SmartShred are General Electric Co., Great American Insurance Co., Hamilton County, Union Central Life Insurance Co., LensCrafters, Equistar Chemicals, KeyBank, Butler County, Health Alliance, Humana/ChoiceCare and Cingular Wireless.

        Even universities do some shredding: Copies of old budgets, files that are no longer current and outdated proposals go into the shredder underneath Rick Meyers' desk at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights. Bins for SmartShred are all over the campus.

        While companies may worry about sensitive information falling into the wrong hands, another concern is reducing the amount of unneeded paper, said Mr. Meyers, an assistant vice president at the university.

        Paul Fiorelli, a lawyer and director of the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Xavier University, said the Enron case reminds him of Watergate and Irangate and that document shredding at Enron was peripheral to other issues.

        “The questions are: What did people know, when did they know it and what did they do once they knew?” Mr. Fiorelli said.

        “Our society tolerates mistakes a whole lot more than we tolerate coverups. Shredding can be appropriate in many situations, but when an investigation is going on, that isn't one of them.”

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