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/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20080417/bfc1609d/attachment-0004.html