Are you running reclamation?

Try "upd stgp xxx recl=95".  (long-term, use 60, not 95, but for now, that
will tell TSM to copy-and-reclaim only tapes 5% used or less - much faster
than
copying a tape that's 40% used.)

You should see a reclamation process kick off within a minute - it'll want
two tape drives.

You should do this on your copypool (ie your offsite pool) as well as your
on-site tape pool, but do the on-site pool first if you're low on tapes -
it'll be faster than waiting for the vault peple to send 'em back...

Good luck..