Many commercial records storage facilities offer destruction as a service to their customers. However, in a survey conducted by the National Association for Information Destruction, a majority of the commercial storage firms were found lacking the equipment necessary to provide the service. Commonly, that industry subcontracts the destruction of the records they store. In some cases, disreputable storage firms were found to be misleading their customers by charging for secure records destruction when, in actuality, the materials were being sold to a recycling company for scrap.

Any business using a commercial records storage firm should inquire as to the nature of the destruction services that are available. It is an unacceptable risk to permit a storage firm to select a subcontractor to provide the records destruction service. The owner of the records is ultimately responsible for their security and, therefore, should be selecting the vendor directly.