Getting rid of confidential documents in the age of identify theft isn’t as easy as it used to be.
Simply tearing paper in half and throwing it in the trash is no guarantee that sensitive information on that document can’t be retrieved. Or that stiff fines won’t result if the paper you discarded contains private information about someone else that was misused.
For many people, the uncertainty about what to do means saving up documents until the home office bulges. University Neighbors has a solution. The registered neighborhood organization has scheduled a community Shred-a-Thon for May 16 so residents can dispose of unwanted household and business records without fear.
A mobile shredding truck will be at Asbury Elementary at East Evans Avenue and Lafayette Street from 9 a.m. until noon to professionally shred as many documents as residents want to bring. The Proshred truck will chop up those old mortgage statements into quarter-inch confetti, pack it into a 10-ton slab and haul it off to the recycler, says company spokesman Jim Topkoff.
“The shredding is done right then and there,” Topkoff says.
The cost of purging documents is $5 per box, but you can show up with paper in any container you wish.
“Some people come with paper bags full of stuff,” Topkoff says. The measuring is done at the truck, where a box is about the size of a 10-ream carton of paper. You don’t have to remove staples or paper clips, Topkoff says, but you do have to separate out any plastic.
The Shred-a-Thon will happen rain or shine, and proceeds will benefit University Neighbors. The community group represents residents from University Boulevard to Downing Street and Buchtel Boulevard to Yale. For more information, call Liz Ullman at 303-733-1442 or Proshred at 303-730-2500.