Clifton Park to offer free shredding day

CLIFTON PARK (Oct. 23) — There are all sorts of ways to get rid of your old bank statements, credit card receipts and other sensitive records, but the town of Clifton Park — in cooperation with 3N Document Destruction and Clifton Park Center — are offering a free opportunity for secure shredding of your papers.

All that is being asked in return is the donation of a nonperishable food item in exchange for each box of papers being shredded. The donations will be given to local food pantries. Last May more than 500 pounds of food was donated to the Jonesville food pantry.

Co-owner Dave Neville of 3N Document Destruction stands before bundles of shredded paper weighing between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds. The paper will be shipped to Waterford to be made into tissue products.

Co-owner Dave Neville of 3N Document Destruction stands before bundles of shredded paper weighing between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds. The paper will be shipped to Waterford to be made into tissue products.

“For us it’s not a money maker,” said Dave Neville, whose family owns 3N. “It’s really just because we live in Clifton Park. My dad and mom still live in the same house they have for 40 years. My brother and I live here. So it’s just our way of saying thanks.”

3N isn’t your ordinary shredding company. It’s an AAA-certified member of the National Association for Information Destruction — and has been for the past 10 years. That means that all employees must undergo drug testing and a through background check before being hired. Every year the company is audited with one-third of the employees undergoing a criminal background check and a half being drug tested.

“We have 13 closed-circuit cameras at our facility,” Neville said. “We are surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.”

The AAA certification allow requires that shredded paper must be recycled; it can’t be sold for animal bedding or packing material.

“It’s not over until it goes in the pulper,” Neville said. “All of our shredded paper is shipped to Waterford to be made into tissue products.

“We don’t even let it out of Saratoga County,” he added with a laugh. “Our customers like it that we keep it local.”

But shredding isn’t the only information protection service 3N offers. At the request of its customers, it has gotten into document archiving and computer backup tape storage over the years.

“We built a climate controlled vault for the computer tape storage,” Neville said.

The shredding day will be from 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25 in the Clifton Park Center parking lot near Dunkin Donuts.

“This is a great program that will provide a service to residents and a donation to our community at no cost to taxpayers,” Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett said in a press release. “We were pleased that both 3N and Clifton Park Center have again agreed to partner with us on this event.”

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