A mobile Shred-it truck arrived Friday at USM’s Physical Plant, offering an environmentally friendly way to dispose of sensitive papers and reduce identity theft risks.
Organized by USM’s Office of Sustainability as the finale to Earth Week, the event drew more than 15 vehicles. Among the lineup were faculty unloading student files, residents ditching old checkbooks, and a librarian confronting COVID- era fraud scars. Each fed their paper into a big trash can beside the truck, where blades created unreliable bits. These went to Shred-it’s Jackson office, got balled into tight bales, and were sold to paper mills to create new paper products.
For Trey Coleman, who oversees the shredding, securely destroying and recycling the papers feels especially rewarding.
“Oh, it feels pretty good,” he said with a smile. “A lot of customers say, ‘hey, you know, we appreciate y’all doing this. It’s really helpful.”
While the positive feedback makes the job rewarding, it also highlights the importance of efforts like this.
“Recycling is kind of a thing… it’s really, to me, become like a lost art,” he said. “It was more of a thing in the past, and it’s the way the ecosystem is in today’s world… it’s good to see things like this that just have a positive impact on the world, and the environment.”
That impact feels personal for many attendees, especially seniors who are concerned about throwing away sensitive information like Social Security numbers and prefer the safer method to help prevent identity theft. Senior librarian Tracy Englert is one example.
“I was a victim of identity theft,” Englert said. “I’m very serious about it.”
After becoming the victim of unemployment-related fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic, Englert now actively seeks out events like this to securely shred financial documents. Before finding these opportunities, she said she would keep papers for a long time and rely on a small hand shredder.
“Just every so often it was real tedious and slow and built up,” she said.
The Shred-it truck not only makes it easier to dispose of paper, but it also offers an environmentally friendly way to get rid of sensitive files. For Danielle Kellum and her department, that means their old records can be shredded and kept out of the landfill.
“I think it’s great we’re not burning [and] it doesn’t go into a landfill,” Kellum said. “And if it does, shredded paper is going to disintegrate faster than just piles and piles of paper.”
That matters to her because she and her department already try to recycle and reuse whenever possible. They reuse file folders when they can and shred old information once it is no longer needed. Still, the Shred-it event makes the process easier because handling the shredding themselves is slow and time-consuming.
“It’s too much for me to sit and shred or for my student worker….” Kellum said.
That’s why she brought a year’s worth of documents to the event and said she wishes it happened twice a year. She also would like to see more recycling events focused on other everyday items, especially plastic bottles.
“We all use plastic bottles,” Kellum said. “I just think there should be more of that.”
Kellum added that while the university does recycle, she does not think the effort is always carried out consistently. She said she has seen recyclable items and regular trash combined, even when the bins were clearly labeled.
“I don’t think they’re 100% committed to it,” Kellum said. “I don’t think there’s a big commitment to it.”
