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Community Spotlight

Each month, MassRecycle will shed the spotlight on a community and their work on Mass Recycles Paper! This page will always be under construction so please keep checking back.

Earth Day Shredding Events
(updated 6/5/2008)
Last month, 11 Massachusetts communities hosted paper-shredding events as part of the Mass Recycles Paper! Campaign. These events all had the goal of providing local residents and businesses with free or affordable ways to securely shred and recycle their sensitive documents. The response was overwhelming with hundreds of people attending events of all sizes throughout the state to shred and recycle over 15 tons of paper! Following are a few highlights from around the state.

Springfield MRF Advisory Board Regional Shredding Events
With shredding events is Northampton, Agawam and Greenfield, the Springfield MRF Advisory Board hosted one of the largest paper shredding events and had excellent turnout. Combined, these three events generated 7 tons of shredded paper from over 300 western Massachusetts residents!

ProShred, Inc. brought mobile shredding trucks to each event and provided services free of charge. All of the paper collected from the event will be sent to local facilities to be recycled and made into hard cover book boards and game boards. The Springfield MRF Advisory Board hosted these events not only to provide shredding services, but also to educate the public on the importance of recycling paper and shredding secure documents.
The Springfield MRF Advisory Board’s mission is to “promote recycling and to advise the Department of Environmental Protection and the Springfield MRF on enhancing the quality and quantities of recyclables in the region.” The great success of this event has prompted the Board to schedule another group of paper shredding events that will be held on October 4, 2008.

Town of Danvers/DPW Earth Day Event
Quoted as the town’s “most successful event ever,” by event organizer Pam Irwin, the 2-day extravaganza in Danvers provided paper shredding services to town residents, schools, town offices and small businesses. Got Books? and Big Brother, Big Sister were also present to collect reusable items including books, videos and clothing.

ProShred, Inc. was also the shredding service provider at this event. Event attendees were allowed to shred two boxes of paper for free, and any additional boxes for only $5. ProShred collected $285 from these additional boxes and donated all of it to the Danvers Community Council. The money donated from the event will be used to help pay energy bills for struggling families in the community.

At the end of the 2-day event 6,820 pounds of paper was collected, shredded and recycled, that is over 3 tons! The town plans on holding similar events twice a year.

Truro Recycling Committee Free Shredding Event
With a winter population barely over 2,000 you might not expect a busy shredding event in Truro during April. But Truro’s Recycling Committee members kept themselves busy shredding sensitive documents long after the free four-hour event.

The dedicated committee members weren’t expecting a big crowd, so they borrowed two simple office shredders from the Town Hall and the Council on Aging. Event coordinator and Chair of the Truro Recycling Committee Bob Holt estimated that about 12 residents came to the event bringing lots of paper. “They brought so much stuff that we worked steadily for the four hours scheduled, and then some!” stated Holt. The members made sure that every sensitive document that was brought to the event was properly shredded and recycled.

When all the shredding was done, their pile of shredded paper was an impressive 4 feet high and 5 feet wide! Without the dedication of the Truro Recycling Committee much of this paper might not have been properly shredded and recycled. The Committee plans on holding another free shredding event next year.

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