Shred It Day- Maplewood

unicorn33 said:

Do they check residence ID? I have some old files I'd love to get rid of, but I'm one town over.

Does anyone know if there will be a Shred-It Day in April this year?  Seems like the pattern has been twice a year (April/October) and that works pretty well for me, so I hope it will continue.

From the Fall 2017 issue of the Maplewood Leaflet:

SHRED-IT-DAY:  This is an opportunity for Maplewood residents to shred any personal paper items such as legal documents, private records, files, books, etc.   The last shredding day of the year will be Saturday, October 21 at the Maplewood Recycling Center (359 Boyden Ave., Maplewood).  The event will be from 8AM to 12PM, or until the truck completely fills, whichever comes first).   

sac said:

From the Fall 2017 issue of the Maplewood Leaflet:

SHRED-IT-DAY:  This is an opportunity for Maplewood residents to shred any personal paper items such as legal documents, private records, files, books, etc.   The last shredding day of the year will be Saturday, October 21 at the Maplewood Recycling Center (359 Boyden Ave., Maplewood).  The event will be from 8AM to 12PM, or until the truck completely fills, whichever comes first).   

Also in South Orange at the DPW--same date and time.

The line on Boyden Avenue reaches back almost to Seth Boyden School. If you plan to come, don't wait!! This is definitely not good for traveling through and I wonder if it will back up to Springfield Ave??

 I think that the town needs to consider doing this more often. 

I don't understand why so many of the people in the line are way out in the middle of the road with their cars rather than keeping the line near the curb so that other traffic can get through more safely.

If you aren't already in line, I would advise against it.  For some reason it is moving at a snail's pace.  I fear that the truck will fill up while those of us who have been in line for an hour sit here waiting.

There were several cars parked in front of houses that forced the line into the middle of the road.

sac said:

I don't understand why so many of the people in the line are way out in the middle of the road with their cars rather than keeping the line near the curb so that other traffic can get through more safely.

krnl said:

There were several cars parked in front of houses that forced the line into the middle of the road.

sac said:

I don't understand why so many of the people in the line are way out in the middle of the road with their cars rather than keeping the line near the curb so that other traffic can get through more safely.

Yes, but people could have moved back over after passing them and didn't.

Yes, the process did seem to be moving at a snail's pace compared to previous years.  I was in line for over an hour and when I finally got near the shredding truck it just stopped.  As we moved up to the truck we learned that someone not too far ahead had two vans that were totally full of material to be shredded.  But, it seemed like even the mechanism that lifts the cans up to the shredder was stalling and exceptionally slow!

Compounding the process, DPW workers were manually going through some of the boxes that hadn't been processed yet.  Why?  Whoever left those boxes did not take the paper out off numerous notebooks and ledgers with heavy binder & plastic covers and metal rings. 

krnl said:

Yes, the process did seem to be moving at a snail's pace compared to previous years.  I was in line for over an hour and when I finally got near the shredding truck it just stopped.  As we moved up to the truck we learned that someone not too far ahead had two vans that were totally full of material to be shredded.  But, it seemed like even the mechanism that lifts the cans up to the shredder was stalling and exceptionally slow!


Compounding the process, DPW workers were manually going through some of the boxes that hadn't been processed yet.  Why?  Whoever left those boxes did not take the paper out off numerous notebooks and ledgers with heavy binder & plastic covers and metal rings. 

Nobody should be allowed to leave (nor should want to leave) before their stuff is shredded. And if unacceptable material (i.e. binders, etc) is found, it should be rejected and the vehicle made to leave with their stuff. The two van loads was way too much and should not have been accepted either (binders or no binders.)

I had to get out of line this morning because it was so long. Where is the cheapest place to shred? any groupons?

We sat in line, then there was confusion about whether there was one line or two.   Went back later and the truck was full.  Given the demand, they will need to develop a different process for next time.  We had one small box to shred, but others seem to be coming with much more than household shredding - which is the intent of this right?  Residents able to take care of household shredding?  Maybe some clarification for next time.

Even the workers were appalled by the volume from those 2 vans. And there was much mumbling among those of us waiting that limits might be a good thing, especially if someone was bringing in stuff that looked like it was business related.

The shredding program has been a godsend for us the past several years since we had fallen behind in our own in-house shredding.  It has taken us a couple of years and we now feel caught up. This year we skipped an out of town event to make sure we didn't miss shred-it day.  Given how popular this service is, scheduling it more frequently would be great.

Back when I started the program it cost $500 for the truck for up to 4 hours, or until the trucked filled up. I don't know what the cost is today.

No one was allowed to just drop stuff and go, they had to wait in line like everyone else.  The lines never backed up beyond the lower yard, but I don't recall ever having 2 vans full.  And businesses were not allowed. We never packed out before 12, but it did come real close several times. 

One of the issues is that people bring in stuff that doesn't need to be shredded. Some  people were too lazy to just take out papers with personal info on it so they just threw all their papers in their box to be shredded.  A lot of the stuff could have just been thrown in the recycling compactor.  

And not taking your stuff off of rings or binders before bringing their papers down to the truck is just rude and inconsiderate to others.  

If the truck was not operating properly than the town should request they come back for free.

Those of us who recycle on Saturday mornings had a difficult time competing with shredders. In the past, there were 2 car lanes so that recyclers could get to the bins. Today I had to park on Newark Way and walk 3 bins up to the recycling area. I mentioned something to the town employee so maybe they reorganized the lanes after I left. 

EricBurbank said:

Back when I started the program it cost $500 for the truck for up to 4 hours, or until the trucked filled up. I don't know what the cost is today.

No one was allowed to just drop stuff and go, they had to wait in line like everyone else.  The lines never backed up beyond the lower yard, but I don't recall ever having 2 vans full.  And businesses were not allowed. We never packed out before 12, but it did come real close several times. 

One of the issues is that people bring in stuff that doesn't need to be shredded. Some  people were too lazy to just take out papers with personal info on it so they just threw all their papers in their box to be shredded.  A lot of the stuff could have just been thrown in the recycling compactor.  

And not taking your stuff off of rings or binders before bringing their papers down to the truck is just rude and inconsiderate to others.  

If the truck was not operating properly than the town should request they come back for free.

Up until 2016, this was my experience - the line wasn't long and the truck didn't fill up before the scheduled end time (or close) and I usually hustled in and out in 15 minutes or less mid-morning.  But a year ago this month, I got there at 10:30 or 11:00 and was informed that the truck had filled and latecomers were turned away.  And last April, I got there early (before 9am) and was in a line on Boyden Avenue for 30 minutes or so.  But it moved and it wasn't really too bad.  But today was just plain unacceptable.

As noted, there were people having to walk their recycling in.  Also some people were parking outside somewhere and walking their boxes of papers needing shredding in and further slowing down the process.  And the truck mechanism was slow although I did not observe it being stuck or stopped. 

Clearly there is much more demand for this now than in the past.  If the town can't spend more money than they currently are on it out of the budget (I certainly understand that), then I think that most of us would be happy to pay a small fee to help with either doing it more frequently or having two trucks to speed things up.  I would pay $5-10 for sure, maybe more, because it is much more convenient than going somewhere that requires you to park and walk as well as pay.  

Also, today they could have had more of the line inside the DPW yard, if they had snaked us around and had us stop on the other side of the truck, just before the exit.  And they should also require residents to stay there until their stuff is shredded so that unacceptable items can be rejected.  (And it is also kinda dumb on the part of the people to leave stuff that needs shredding without seeing that it was actually shredded.  If they bothered to come wait in line because their papers are sensitive, why would they leave without making sure ... oh, maybe it wasn't really THEIR stuff????  If so, that's a problem.)

Finally, if there IS going to be a line outside on Boyden Avenue, then the police should come along regularly and make sure that people keep their cars as close to the curb as possible (and maybe post "Emergency No Parking" signs along there the night before.)  It was a very dangerous situation where the line was taking up the travel lane (mostly needlessly, as there were only a couple of parked cars) and people were passing on that blind curve of the street.