(a) Sale or salvage of unrestricted records—

(1) Paper records. Paper records to be destroyed normally must be sold as wastepaper, or otherwise salvaged. All sales must follow the established procedures for the sale of surplus personal property. (See 41 CFR part 101—45, Sale, Abandonment, or Destruction of Personal Property.) The contract for sale must prohibit the resale of all records for use as records or documents.

(2) Records on electronic and other media. Records other than paper records (audio, visual, and electronic records on physical media data tapes, disks, and diskettes) may be salvaged and sold in the same manner and under the same conditions as paper records.

(b) Destruction of unrestricted records. Unrestricted records that agencies cannot sell or otherwise salvage must be destroyed by burning, pulping, shredding, macerating, or other suitable means authorized by implementing regulations issued under E.O. 12958, as amended or its successor.

(c) Destruction of classified or otherwise restricted records. If the records are restricted because they are national security classified or exempted from disclosure by statute, including the Privacy Act, or regulation:

(1) Paper records. For paper records, the agency or its wastepaper contractor must definitively destroy the information contained in the records by one of the means specified in paragraph (b) of this section and their destruction must be witnessed either by a Federal employee or, if authorized by the agency, by a contractor employee.

(2) Electronic records. Electronic records scheduled for destruction must be disposed of in a manner that ensures protection of any sensitive, proprietary, or national security information. Magnetic recording media previously used for electronic records containing sensitive, proprietary, or national security information must not be reused if the previously recorded information can be compromised in any way by reuse of the media.