Question: We have a procedure in our branch of keeping trash for one solid week before we put it out on the curb. I object to this - not only for health reasons, but also because of space. We don't have room for all this trash, and with the remodeling they're going to do in our office, we'll have even less room. Now they're talking about storing it in the rest room. Why do we have to hold on to trash so long? Is there a regulation that requires it?
Answer: You may be combining your office trash with your kitchen trash - not a good procedure. Make sure that the trash you're holding is truly office and work trash. If you're not separating your trash, now is a good time to begin. Also, hopefully, any customer or depositor or account information you put in the trash is shredded - not left to put in bags on the curb once a week. Please tell me it is!
Holding on to trash is practiced because of the strange things we manage to put in the trash every now and then. I had a $20,000 'mysterious disappearance' call from a branch one Friday. By Sunday night we had solved the "crime" when we went through the trash bags as a last resort. Somehow the strapped bills had found their way into the trash basket before it was emptied into the bag - probably inadvertently brushed off a counter. Checks, tapes, settlement sheets, loan papers, in one case the manager's pocketbook - at one time or another was found in our five day stored trash bags. Kitchen trash was kept separately and disposed of in a timely manner. Office trash, on the other hand, can sometimes be valuable. One of the 'side effects' of Check 21 is going to be storage. It may make your trash problem now seem minimal! While there is no regulation about retaining trash, it's just a good, common sense standard that the industry has adopted.
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