Ocean County is again offering its free Residential Document Shredding Program, with its first event on April 6.
“Our residents begin to inquiry about this program early in the year,” said Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners Barbara Jo Crea. “I am happy to announce we will be offering the program again and there will be 15 different dates and locations where residents can access this free service.”The Ocean County Board of Commissioners has supported this program from the start and we are very pleased that we can continue to run it through our Department of Solid Waste Management,” said Crea, who serves as liaison to the county’s award winning recycling programs. “We encourage our residents to use it in order to safely and securely dispose of important papers that they no longer need.”
The following are the dates and locations for the 2024 Residential Document Shredding Program:
- April 6, Berkeley Township, 630 Pinewald Keswick Road;
- April 12, Lakewood Township, 1 America Ave.;
- April 27, Stafford Township, 379 Haywood Road;
- May 4, Seaside Park, South Bayview and 14th avenues;
- May 11, Waretown, 117 Wells Mills Road,
- May 24, Toms River Township, 250 Riverwood Drive;
- June 1, Jackson Township, 95 West Veterans Highway;
- June 15, Little Egg Harbor Township, 1 Sports Complex Drive,
- June 22, Point Pleasant, 2300 Panther Path.
- Also, Sept. 7, Manchester Township, 101 South Colonial Drive;
- Sept. 14, Lacey Township, 820 Municipal Lane;
- Sept. 21, Barnegat Township, 5 Lippincott Ave.;
- Oct. 5, Brick Township, 836 Ridge Road;
- Oct. 19, Ship Bottom, West 10th Street and Shore Avenue
- Oct. 26, Beachwood, 1600 Pinewald Road.
Each shredding event runs from 9 a.m. to noon or until the truck is full. Registration for the program is not required. And Ocean County residents can attend any of the 15 locations.
“Last year, we recycled 88.5 tons of paper during the shredding program and more than 4,000 households participated,” Crea said.There are two trucks at every site and participants should stay in their cars.”For everyone’s safety, during the shredding events, residents must stay in their vehicle at all times,” Crea said. “The materials you want shredded should be in your trunk or cargo area easily accessible to the staff who will remove them from your vehicle.”
There is a limit of four file boxes or clear bags, containing a total of no more than 100 pounds of confidential documents per car. Paper must be in manageable containers and there is no need to remove paper clips or staples. No commercial documents are accepted. Also, newspapers, magazines, books, junk mail, file folders, greeting cards, photos, x-rays, CDs, or shredded paper should not be part of the confidential papers being shredded.
“With identity theft on the rise, this program provides a safe way to dispose of confidential papers,” Crea said. “The materials go from your vehicle into the shredding truck.”
For residents who prefer to shred documents at home, Ocean County offers Shredded Paper drop-off bins at both the Northern Ocean Recycling Center in Lakewood and the Southern Recycling Center in Stafford. The centers are open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shredded paper should not be placed in curbside recycling bins as it cannot be sorted.
The County’s 2024 shredding events will be serviced by IDSAutoshred from Toms River.
