I recycle at home and I recycle at work. I try to keep as much out of the landfill as possible but sometimes its just not possible. Take for instance your personal and financial papers. You could buy a shredder and spend the next week or two loading three sheets at time or you could use a professional shredding service.
Companies contract with these shredding services to pickup your sensitive papers on a regular schedule and have them securely disposed of. Great if your a large company. Not so great if you only need to dispose of papers once in awhile.
The United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham (UCP) has entered the document shredding market as a way to employ people with severe disabilities. The used to have a silk screen division that I would use and local printers use their Outsource Solutions to handle fulfillment and collating. The company is called Gone For Good: Secure Document Destruction.
I talked with Skip Taylor this morning at UCP about taking care of a few boxes for me and he said they would be happy to do it for me and for anyone else who needed their services. I didn’t get a chance to ask Skip if the papers will be recycled or sent to a landfill but I am going to turn an eye just because of the great things UCP does.
Here’s the details. They are located at 120 Oslo Circle in Birmingham are open from 9-11 and 1-3:30 and they will take your few boxes free of charge. You can contact them at 205-943-5252.
They will give you a donation card (or they should) and you should feel obligated to make a donation. If you don’t feel you can make a donation then you should probably take you papers to a non-secure location like the one run by the Alabama Environmental Council.
The UCP of Greater Birmingham is a fantastic program that needs our help so take advantage of their services.
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My understanding is that UCP, as well as most professional shredding services, do recycle their shredded paper at one of the local paper recycling companies. The paper they collect is typically sorted office paper, which is one of the most valuable paper commodities. Paper has had a resurgence in the open market and sorted materials always have better value.
Everyone can help drive this market by looking for products that contain a high percentage of post-consumer-recycled (PCR) material. Don’t stop with 30%PCR; seek out 100%! It is very high-quality and doesn’t jam machines like early materials did.
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