Local Credit Union Offers 'Shred Day' for Sensitive Documents

No matter how ‘digital’ everything seems to be, paper waste is still a big problem in the modern era - both for the environment and for personal security.

Experts have noticed that a shocking amount of identity theft comes from dumpster diving and trash picking. Trash picking, which has technically been legal in America since 1988, is a common source of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands without the same sort of warning you might get from a credit union or identity monitoring service.

Think about how much of your personal information can wind up in the trash - your bank account number, social security number, tax documents, and the like. Even just getting your name and address off of unopened junk mail can be enough for the more nefarious trash pickers out there to start opening fraudulent accounts in your name, and the risks of leaving your trash intact can be greater than you think.

Even above and beyond the privacy concerns, paper waste is still a huge problem in the modern era. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds that when paper is thrown away it can become up to 33% of the municipal solid waste stream for any given area - meaning that more than 30% of the solid trash generated by any given city or neighborhood consists of discarded paper. This can start to become a huge drain on an area’s resources and increase local emission levels to unsafe amounts.

What can be done about it, you might be asking? Increased proper disposal (and knowledge of) sensitive documents among communities will go a long way towards cutting down on solid paper waste. With this in mind, New Mexico-based credit union U.S. Eagle recently announced their Shred Day celebration.

In honor of Earth Day, U.S. Eagle will offer free document shredding services to residents in the greater Albuquerque area including the Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Santa Fe, and San Juan communities. The credit union encourages residents to bring “tax documents, bank statements, documents with private information, and documents you're not sure what to do with” for safe and secure shredding.

Through shredding, these documents can increase your financial security and prevent misuse of your personal information, all while reducing your environmental impact by making your paper waste easier to reuse and recycle. Feels pretty good to help out, right?

For the full list of Shred Day events, check out the U.S. Eagle Shred Day schedule.