| Spring Shred n' More
When: Saturday, April 29, 8am - noon
Where: Kane County Circuit Clerk, 540 S. Randall Rd., St. Charles (a.k.a. "old Montgomery Ward")
What: Free document shredding! Please see our "Ready, Shreddy, GO!" information to prepare for the event. We will also be collecting latex paint and aerosols - please fees for these items at the bottom of the page. We will also be accepting childrens car seats for recycling - again, see pricing below. Finally, we're happy to announce a new partnership with Helping Hands, Inc. for free reuse/recycling of clothing (all types), shoes, and home goods. This is the first time we have been able to recycle many of these home good items through a County event! See image below for commonly accepted items and a few no-no's. Please no furniture, electronics (other than toys), or sports equipment.
Who: Free shredding service is for Kane County residents. All are welcome to recycle paint, aerosols, car seats, clothing, shoes and homegoods.Confidential Document Shredding
FREE TO KANE COUNTY RESIDENTIAL USERS ONLY - NO BUSINESS SHREDDING
2023 Dates: Saturday, April 29 & Saturday, September 30
Where: 540 S Randall Road, St. Charles, IL 60174
Hours: 8am-12 noon only on dates listed above, please arrive between these hours.
NOTE: The 8am-9:30am hour is generally the busiest. Last year, attendees experiences little to no wait time from 10am onward. Please do not arrive early as you create the problem you are trying to avoid - a long line that is not moving!
Ready, Shreddy...GO!
What you can bring:
Please sort your papers so that you bring ONLY confidential materials. Event staff or volunteers may ask you to leave the line and sort your papers if you bring a lot of material that does not need to be shredded.
Confidential materials include: tax records, medical records, bank & credit card statements, any document displaying a social security number. This is information that someone could use to steal your identity and/or money.
Confidential materials DO NOT include: cash register receipts, magazines, newspapers, empty envelopes, junk mail, mail with your name & address but no other private information, school papers, recipes, books, or photographs. Most of these can go in curbside recycling, except cash register receipts and photographs, which should go in the trash, and books which can go to a Kane County Recycling Center or thrift store.
If it is not paper, we can't take it for shredding. This means no CDs or floppy discs, hard drives, credit cards (cut up with scissors and place in trash), shoes, Christmas decorations, plastic sleeves on files, plastic binders, or garbage.
Amount of material per household:
Quantity limit is the equivalent of 4 banker boxes (12"width x 16"depth x 10"height), or about what will fit comfortably in a normal passenger vehicle without folding seats down.
Packaging your papers:
Any type of open-top box is preferred (e.g., cardboard box, plastic tub or tote, laundry basket, etc.). We will give you your containers back - please understand that we need to keep the line moving, so we don't have time to break down unwanted cardboard boxes. Please make sure each box weighs no more than 40lbs. Small quantities can come in paper bags. Please no plastic bags.
How to prepare your papers:
PLEASE REMOVE all binder clips, ring clips, three-ring binders, hanging file folders with metal hangers, and any other larger metal pieces. These can go airborne when they hit the shredder blades, causing a hazard to event attendees. Staples, paperclips, spiral bindings, manila folders, and file folders without metal are okay to leave.
PLEASE REMOVE all plastic, including page protectors, dividers, file label holders, plastic folders or binders. Envelope windows are okay, though we encourage you to remove envelopes, as they are not confidential material.
What to expect:
You may need to join a queue when you pull into the event site - our shredding events are often popular! Please pay attention to all event personnel directing traffic and all event signs. Please stay in your vehicle except to use the Pit Stop (northeast corner of the front parking lot).
The line of traffic will move towards the on-site shredding trucks; there are four trucks scheduled for each 2023 event, with each truck holding up to 12,000 pounds of paper. You may be asked to pull into a separate line as you get closer to the trucks. Please follow all event personnel directions.
As you pull up to the unloading area, please pop your trunk or make sure your doors are unlocked, but do not exit your vehicle. Volunteers will take your documents and load them into the truck hopper and put your boxes (if any) back in your car. Please pull forward and follow traffic to the exit as soon as your documents are unloaded. If it is important for you to physically see your documents be shredded, you MUST pull out of line and park until the hopper for your truck is full and the contents are shredded. You MAY NOT wait in the unloading zone for the batch to be shredded.
Documents are cross-shredded into confetti-sized pieces as they are tipped into the shredding trucks.
Please check this page before the event to confirm, as things do change. See alternatives below if you have an urgent need.
Alternatives:
If you do not want to wait, you might try calling your bank to see if they have a free yearly shredding event for their customers; they sometimes do. Also some Alderman offices are organizing small scale shred events in their wards; check with yours to see if there are any planned.
Otherwise, here is a list of some companies that offer shredding services in the area. These companies serve residents and businesses, and most charge a fee per pound.
AMS Store and Shred of Lake in the Hills: 847-658-0400
ATR - Advanced Technology Recycler: 815-844-7779
Groot - Accurate Document Destruction: 800-407-4733
Iron Mountain: 800-899-4766
Life Storage Centers of Aurora: 630-618-2161
Shred-It: 708-345-8392
Shred Nations: 630-299-4886
Shred Nations offers residential quantity shredding through local offices, find a location with the zip code location finder.
UPS stores
Note:
This list is not all inclusive, nor does Kane County promote any of these businesses over others. It is simply a list of options for confidential document shredding services, meant to serve as a helpful guide.
Already Shredded Paper?
DO NOT PUT IN CURBSIDE RECYCLING BIN: Paper that has already been shredded is not recyclable in the curbside recycling programs because it creates a major problem at sorting facilities.
BRING TO ANY KANE COUNTY RECYCLING CENTER: If you have already shredded your documents, you can bring bags of shredded paper to the Kane County Recycling Centers. Please bring shredded paper in paper bags (with top rolled and stapled once or twice). Shredded paper will be sent for pulping.
SHRED JUDICIOUSLY: Best practice if you want to shred your own confidential material is to tear off the portion of the page that contains the confidential information and shred that and then recycle the rest of the sheet whole in your curbside recycling program. |
