County Offers Free Document Shredding Event For Berkeley Residents On Saturday

Is your home office messy enough to qualify you to appear on "Hoarders?"

Well, don't despair. Berkeley residents can bring up to six boxes or bags of unwanted paperwork to the Berkeley Township Recyling Center on 630 Pinewald-Keswick Road on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and watch them disappear.

The Ocean County Department of Solid Waste Management is offering a free shredding program for all non-commercial paper documents and paper forms. Paper clips and staples do not have to be removed. X-rays, CDs, floppy disks, microfilm and file folders are not accepted.

The work will be performed by Autoshred from Toms River. The shredding unit features an automatic feeding and dumping system, which eliminates the need for human contact with the documents, he said.

"Since we started this program a few years ago, it has become very popular with our citizens," said Freeholder Director John P. Kelly. "It is important for people to have a place to go where they can have personal papers shredded, eliminating the worry that the information will get into the wrong hands."

All collection dates will run the complete scheduled time or until the truck which has the capacity to hold 8,000 pounds is full. The program is only open to residents.

"The service representatives are uniformed, bonded and insured," Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said. "Papers are shredded by pierce and tear method."

The county has scheduled a number of additional shredding events throughout the spring and summer in various municipalities. For more information, call the Ocean County Department of Solid Waste Management at 732-506-5047.