Jopiln Recycling Center schedules document shredding event

(From the City of Joplin)

Many people may have personal papers that are no longer needed and are cluttering their houses, but fear of identity theft prevents some people from trashing or recycling these sensitive documents. To help with this issue, Joplin Recycling Center’s Paper Shredding Event is on Saturday, April 4, from 9–11 a.m. at 1310 West A Street (enter from the west). Big Bear Shredding will provide free, on-site shredding for up to eight file boxes or grocery bags per car. Please remove binders, binder clips, CDs, and non-paper materials.

During this unique opportunity, large amounts of paper can be shredded quickly at no cost to area residents. The document shredding company, Big Bear Shredding, will have their mobile shred truck at the Center. This event is free and open to all residents with a limit of 12 standard-sized file boxes per car. Please ensure that papers do not have any binders, binder file clips, or CD’s which are sometimes part of large folders or packets. Non-paper materials, such as cardboard, packing paper, and brown paper sacks, will not be accepted. 

Identity theft resulting from items stolen from the trash or curbside recycling bins is the easiest crime to prevent. You can stop identity theft by completely shredding documents, receipts, address labels, or pieces of paper with identifying information like account numbers.

If you cannot attend this event, the Joplin Recycling Center has a paper document destruction service on site throughout the year. The Center utilizes three locked 96-gallon containers, which are switched out with empty containers on a weekly basis by CRC Shredding. 

 The process is self-serve. Patrons can drop approximately 200 pages at a time through the restricted opening on the container. This service is at no cost to patrons. All paper is shredded, mixed with other non-sensitive shredded paper, pulped, and then used to manufacture products such as egg cartons.

The Center is open Tuesday and Thursday from Noon to 6 p.m. and Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, contact Joplin Recycling Coordinator at 417-624-0820, extension 1501.