12 Tons Of Paper Shredded At Town Of Smithtown Event

KINGS PARK, NY — Town of Smithtown residents shredded 12.11 tons of sensitive documents at the town's bi-annual paper shredding event on Saturday.

The Town of Smithtown Department of Environment and Waterways, in partnership with the Municipal Services Facility, hosted the first of two shredding events, and 430 vehicles showed up to Municipal Services Facility at 85 Old Northport Road, Kings Park.

"I’d like to first thank our DEW team, and MSF personnel, who provided friendly and fast service to our fellow residents," said David Barnes, director of Smithtown Department of Environment and Waterways, via news release. "The flow of vehicles was steady all day long and our community members were extremely grateful for the service. The shredding events have become increasingly popular for Smithtown Residents and we look forward to our next one in September."

The next paper shredding event is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 25 at the same address as Saturday's.

The most paper the township has shredded at one of these events was September 2020, when 440 households disposed of 16 tons of documents. However, the town only hosted the one shredding event last year due to the coronavirus pandemic being near its peak in April 2020.

"We saw about three times the normal volume from our 2019 events, before COVID hit," Michael Engelmann, solid waste coordinator, stated. "We anticipated this based on last year's numbers, and made adjustments to staffing and a second shredding truck. The residents were grateful for the expedited service, virtually no wait times and friendly door to shredder service courtesy of DEW and MSF staff. I’d also like to thank Supervisor [Edward] Wehrheim and the Town Board for supporting this bi-annual event each year."

Residents were asked by the town to wear face masks and remain in vehicles in an effort to practice safety and social distancing guidelines to protect public health amid the coronavirus. Additional staff and a second industrial shredder truck were incorporated into this year's event to ensure fast service. All personal documents were safely destroyed by Data Shredding Service, Inc., a full-service confidential shredding service located on Corporate Drive in Hauppauge.