SANTA ROSA, Calif.–Nearly 3,500 residents in Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties in California took action to protect themselves from fraud and identity theft by shredding old financial records and other paperwork at Redwood Credit Union’s (RCU’s) free annual Shred-a-Thons held over the summer.
A total of 100 RCU volunteers, plus shredding trucks from Shred-IT were on-site at the events to help the communities safely dispose of and recycle about 142,500 lbs. of documents.
Additionally, Conservation Corps of the North Bay collected nearly 22,000 lbs. of e-waste on site at the Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino events, including old TVs, printers, monitors, computers, and other personal electronics for secure recycling.
“It’s gratifying to look at these total numbers and realize that we were able to help thousands of people take action to safeguard themselves from identity theft,” said Matt Martin, vice president of community relations at RCU. “We were happy to once again provide this service to our communities.”
At each shred event, attendees were also able to make voluntary donations to local nonprofits on-site. In total, more than $8,700 was raised through the events to a number of charities.