Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful, Five Hills royalty host Community Shred Day

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press 

Local residents had the opportunity on Sunday to safely dispose of their unwanted papers, mail, sensitive documents, and more this weekend.

Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful partnered with Miss Five Hills Jazmine Hendricks to host a community shred day event from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sunday in conjunction with America Recycles Day. 

The event took place at the CCISD Service and Training Center where a truck was on-site shredding purposes. The shredded remains were then taken to a facility where they will be recycled. This Sunday, they collected 8,100 pounds of paper dropped off from 93 cars.

“It’s a nice way to show that the city is looking out for its citizens,” said Hendricks. “It’s easy, accessible, and fast, which is important.”

Hendricks said that she chose to make recycling her platform after living in South Korea where she says they recycle everything. She said her time there caused her to reflect on why things are done differently there. She said that locally it’s not always easy to recycle adding that she typically has to go to Killeen if she does want to recycle, and some people just find it easier to just throw something away.

Hendricks said that she hopes by doing events like Sunday’s shredding event, and making recycling more easily accessible to more people, then more people will start to recycle.

Sally Rhymes was one of many who dropped off documents to be shredded at Sunday’s event.

“I cleaned out my filing cabinet, and I had a lot of documents with personal information on them. I did this about a year ago, and they’ve just been sitting and collecting dust and I didn’t know what to do about them. Then I heard about this, and I came over and dropped them off,” said Sally Rhymes. “I think it’s really cool that they offer something like this to the citizens so they can get rid of documents.”

Throughout the shredding event, participants only had to load up their papers and drive to the site where masked volunteers unloaded the vehicles for them. The process was contactless, but people could remain in their car and watch the shredding process to make sure that they felt confident that the items were properly destroyed. The papers were shredded into ½-inch by 1-inch strips.

“It just gives the community a sense that their documents are being securely shredded. It’s good for the environment. It will get shredded in the truck and then they will bring it to a recycling facility,” Bonita Henderson, KCCB president. “I think we had a great turnout.”

Henderson said that she was happy to be able to partner with the Five Hills Royalty. She said that the kids were great, and she thought they enjoyed getting to help and watch the shredding truck in action.

Both Henderson and Hendricks said that they hope to make the shredding into an annual event.