OCEAN COUNTY – The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders are offering residents 22 different opportunities to get rid of their residential documents in a secure and safe way.
“Ocean County’s Residential Document Shredding Program kicks off on April 8 at the Berkeley Township Recycling Center in Berkeley Township,” said Ocean County Freeholder Gerry P. Little, who serves as liaison to the county’s award-winning recycling program. “That is the first of 22 different dates for the popular program that is held throughout the County. We have added four more dates this year.
“This program provides a great service to our residents by shredding personal documents and information that otherwise may wind up in regular trash,” Little said. “With identity theft on the rise, this offers security to our residents and also keeps all of this paper out of the Ocean County Landfill. It’s a win, win.”
In 2016, a total of 102 tons or 204,000 pounds of documents were collected and shredded during the 18 collection dates. The amount collected is up 16,000 pounds.
“Ocean County is a large county and we make every effort to make this program easily accessible to all our citizens,” said Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari. “This program has been embraced by all of our residents who want to rid their homes of personal papers without worrying about them falling into the hands of people who may use it for the wrong reasons.”
“This program was first started in 2008 and has grown in popularity,” Little said.
The work is being performed by Autoshred of Toms River.
Residents are not required to register for this free program and can bring six boxes or bags each day. The program is for all paper documents and paper forms. Paperclips and staples do not have to be removed.
Little noted the shredding unit features an automatic feeding and dumping system, eliminating the need for human contact with a resident’s documents. Events will run their complete scheduled time or until the truck is full. The truck capacity is 8,000 pounds.
Little said that for residents who prefer to shred their documents at home, Ocean County offers drop-off boxes at both County recycling centers for shredded office papers.
“Shredded office paper should not be placed with curbside recyclables and instead should be brought to the drop-off boxes at the county recycling centers,” Little said. “The shredded paper cannot be effectively sorted by the County’s recyclable materials processing facility. I encourage our residents to recycle it separately which allows us to produce a viable, marketable commodity.”
Drop-off boxes can be accessed by Building 105 at the Ocean County Southern Recycling Center, 379 Haywood Road, Stafford Township or Building 68 at the Ocean County Northern Recycling Center at 601 New Hampshire Ave., Lakewood.
Little also suggested residents contact their municipal recycling centers to learn whether there is a local drop-off box for shredded office papers.
The following is a list of dates, times and locations for the Residential Document Shredding Program:
- April 8, Berkeley Township Recycling Center, 630 Pinewald Keswick Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- April 22, Plumsted Township, 121 New Egypt Allentown Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- April 29, South Toms River Rec Center Parking Lot, 1 Drake Lane, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- May 3, Little Egg Harbor Township Community Center, 319 West Calabreeze Way, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- May 13, Point Pleasant Recycling Center, Arthur Avenue, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- May 20, Seaside Park Public Works Garage, 1201 Barnegat Ave., 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- June 3, Lakehurst Public Works Garage, 800 Myrtle St., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- June 10, Stafford Township, Southern Recycling Center, 379 Haywood Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- June 17, Brick Township Public Works Yard, 836 Ridge Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- June 24, Barnegat Township Municipal Complex, 900 West Bay Ave., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- July 14, Lakewood Township Public Works Yard, 1 America Ave., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- July 22, Ocean Gate Municipal Building Parking Lot, 801 Ocean Gate Ave., 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- July 29, Ocean Township Municipal Complex, 50 Railroad Ave., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- August 12, Lacey Township Recycling Center, 820 Municipal Lane, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- August 19, Jackson Township Rear Municipal Building Lot, 95 West Veterans Highway, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- August 25, Toms River Township, Riverwood Park, 250 Riverwood Drive, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- September 16, Long Beach Township Recycling Center, 7910 Long Beach Boulevard, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- September 23, Island Heights Public Works Garage, Lake Avenue and Laurel Avenue, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- September 30, Point Pleasant Beach Public Works Yard, 301 Cooks Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- October 14, Manchester Township Public Works Yard, 1360 Route 70, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- October 21, Eaglewood Township Municipal Complex, 146 Division Street, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- October 28, Beachwood Municipal Complex, 1600 Pinewald Road, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information on the program, contact the Ocean County Department of Solid Waste Management at 732-506-5047.
