[Hidden-tech] Secure Paper Shredding Events this Sat 4/19

[Carlyn Saltman]

Hey Hidden-Techers,
If you have more shredding than you'd care to do yourself, Amy Donovan, Program Director of Franklin County Solid Waste Management District, has great news for you...

Dear Friends of Recycling,

Happy Earth Day! (4/22) I am writing for 2 reasons:

1 -  to invite you to one of the 3 FREE and SECURE paper shredding events this Saturday (4/19) in Greenfield, Northampton, and Agawam. Details and an article from today's Gazette are below.

2 - to tell you that there will be a special 18-page recycling section in this Monday's (4/21) Greenfield Recorder and Hampshire Gazette.  This section, entitled "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" will contain 18 pages of recycling and reusing resources and information specific to western Massachusetts.  The recycling insert is intended to be a handy guide for future reference.  The text and content was created by the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) Advisory Board.  I serve on this board representing Franklin County.   Thanks to the Gazette and Recorder for working with us on this important project. Please consider buying Monday's paper; you will be pleased with the guide!

~~~
FREE Paper Shredding and Recycling Events
 

CLEAN OUT YOUR FILES!  The Springfield MRF Advisory Board (MAB) is sponsoring three FREE paper-shredding events. All papers will be securely shredded on-site by PROSHRED, INC.  They will provide a certificate of destruction upon request.  

 


WHEN:           APRIL 19, 2008 from 9am to 1pm

 

THREE LOCATIONS: 

AGAWAM DPW, 1000 SUFFIELD STREET, AGAWAM

SMITH VOC. HIGH SCHOOL, 80 LOCUST ST (RT.9), NORTHAMPTON

STAPLES, 259 MOHAWK TRAIL (RT.2), GREENFIELD

 

WHO:             RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

BRING THE FOLLOWING PAPERS FOR SHREDDING:

CANCELLED OR BLANK CHECKS
LEGAL PAPERS

CREDIT CARD STATEMENTS AND OFFERS
INCOME TAX DOCUMENTS

BANK/FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

MEDICAL RECORDS

DOCUMENTS WITH SOCIAL SECURITY OR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION

 

LIMIT:  ONE RECYCLING BIN OF THE ABOVE PAPERS.  PLEASE SAVE YOUR NEWSPAPERS, CARDBOARD, MAGAZINES, AND OTHER NON-CONFIDENTIAL PAPERS FOR YOUR REGULAR WEEKLY RECYCLING COLLECTION.

 

ENTER A RAFFLE FOR A FREE SHREDDER!  

 

All papers will be securely shredded on-site by PROSHRED, INC.  They will provide a certificate of destruction upon request.  

 

Shredded paper IS recyclable in western Massachusetts recycling programs: place shredded paper in a paper bag and lightly tape or staple the top shut.  Securing the bag will help reduce litter. Please, do not use plastic bags! 


~~~
Front page article from the 4/17 Hampshire Gazette detailing the paper shredding events and the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign:

Shredding date a push for recycling 
By DAN CROWLEY Staff Writer 

NORTHAMPTON - Worried about someone meticulously piecing together old 
copies of your federal income tax returns while en route to a recycling 
facility? Is your human resources department trying to figure out what 
to do with confidential employee files it no longer needs?

No worries. A mobile shredding unit is coming to Northampton Saturday to 
tear apart and obliterate these and other sensitive documents for free. 
Participants can watch their paperwork get shredded in action, win a 
free paper shredder and, upon request, receive an official 'certificate 
of destruction.'

The events are timed to coincide with this week's federal tax filing 
deadline and to educate the public that shredded documents can and 
should be recycled rather than thrown away, according to Karen 
Bouquillon, the Department of Public Works' solid-waste supervisor.

Many people still combine shredded papers with their regular trash, she 
said, which translates into unnecessary financial and solid waste, 
environmental degradation, and lost revenues for municipalities. The 
event seeks to promote the recycling of shredded documents, and other 
paper products, instead of throwing them in the trash.

'I don't know how the misperception came about, but it's out there that 
shredded paper is trash,' Bouquillon said. 'It got entrenched in 
people's minds.'

The paper-shredding event is part of the Mass Recycles Paper! campaign 
and runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Smith Vocational and Agricultural 
High School. The event is open to small businesses and residents 
throughout western Massachusetts. Similar events are being held 
simultaneously at Staples in Greenfield and at the Agawam Department of 
Public Works.

Area residents who wish to part ways with documents containing highly 
personal information, such as credit card and bank statements, medical 
records, and old tax returns are welcome to bring up to one recycling 
bin full of such documents to the mobile shredding units operated by 
ProShred Inc., of Wilbraham.

'We want to help educate people that because of identify theft and 
security issues, there are some kinds of paper that you just don't want 
to discard into the recycling bin and recycle with care,' said Bouquillon.

Small businesses are encouraged to shred and recycle legal papers, 
financial records, proprietary documents, customer lists, sales reports 
and human resources records, for example.

Martha Blair, of Northampton, began shredding documents with sensitive 
personal information about five years ago after her mother became a 
victim of identity theft. Somebody had charged $800 in airline tickets 
using one of her credit card accounts. The thief was never caught, she 
said.

'I shred a lot of my stuff,' said Blair, moments after dumping a pile of 
paper recycling into a compactor at the city's transfer station on 
Locust Street Wednesday.

Blair said she recycles some of the shredded paper, but other times, 
she'll give some to her sister-in-law, who uses it to start her 
woodstove. Using shredded paper to jump-start home heating systems is 
not uncommon in western Massachusetts, though experts in the solid-waste 
industry say recycling the material is the preferred method of disposal.

'There is a lot of paper being burned privately,' Bouquillon said.

Leo Goyette, of Florence, said that while he will occasionally throw 
shredded paper in with the trash, he has been an ardent recycler of 
paper nonetheless.

'I think it's the right thing to do,' said Goyette, as he tossed an 
armful of paper products into the Locust Street compactor.

A public-private partnership that now includes 60 cities and towns, the 
Mass Recycles Paper campaign kicked off in November with the goal of 
recycling 1 million tons of paper - the amount usually buried or burned 
each year in Massachusetts. State environmental regulators estimate that 
more than 1.5 million tons of paper is thrown away annually in the 
commonwealth at a cost of $100 million in disposal or tip fees.

'That's an avoidable cost,' said Claire Sullivan, chairwoman of the Mass 
Recycles Paper steering committee and executive director of 15-town 
South Shore Recycling Cooperative, this week.

Sullivan calculated that 1.5 million tons of unrecycled paper is enough 
to fill Fenway Park to the height of the Prudential Tower in Boston. The 
state Department of Environmental Protection estimates that this wasted 
paper would be worth $30 to $50 million annually if it were recycled.

In addition to the environmental benefits of recycling and using less 
paper, the markets and pricing for scrap paper are at their longest, 
sustained high in 20 years resulting from huge demand at home and 
overseas, according to the Mass Recycles Paper. That includes shredded 
paper.

'We want people to understand that shredded paper is recyclable,' 
Sullivan said. 'It's still valuable. We want that stuff.'

Many western Massachusetts communities transport their paper recycling 
to the Springfield Municipal Recycling Facility, which paid $1.4 million 
to area cities and towns for its paper recycling in calendar year 2007, 
according to the figures provided by the Northampton Department of 
Public Works.

Northampton received $97,767 of those revenues last year, up from 
$66,586 the previous year - not because more people recycled paper, but 
because of the strong demand and pricing for recycled paper. The city 
generated a monthly average of 126 tons of recycled paper last year.

Northampton's paper recycling is trucked multiple times each week from 
its two transfer stations to the Springfield facility, after which it 
leaves for a paper mill in Fitchburg, which reportedly can't get enough 
of the materials.

'The paper markets are very, very strong right now, and we want to 
encourage people to recycle all they can,' Bouquillon said.
~~~

Thanks for recycling!

Amy Donovan
Program Director
Franklin County Solid Waste Management District 
50 Miles Street 
Greenfield, MA 01301 
Tel: (413) 772-2438 
Fax: (413) 772-3786 
Email: amy at franklincountywastedistrict.org
Web: www.franklincountywastedistrict.org/
Mass Recycles Paper! Learn more at: www.massrecyclespaper.org/
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