It’s spring shred season once again. Gather your sensitive financial and personal documents and bring them to an Arsenal branch on one of the above dates between 9 a.m. and noon for free paper shredding. When you arrive, American Document Destruction, a local business AAA certified by the National Association for Information Destruction, will shred all of your paper on-site so that none of your personal information becomes compromised.

Some important documents you can bring in for free paper shredding include, but are not limited to:

• Old tax returns, pay stubs and reconciled account statements (if the latter item includes tax-deductible charitable donations, tuition costs, business or medical expenses, keep for seven years)
• Loan documents (after loans are paid in full)
• Cancelled and voided checks
• Paid utility bills
• Expired insurance policies
• Items with your signature
• Credit card offers

As part of our commitment to the community, this a free paper shredding event! Bring as many paper documents you need to be shredded (within reason). If you don’t have a shredder at home, this important service would likely cost you money at an office supply store or if you went through a paper-shredding company directly; one well-known local chain charges 99 cents per pound! Even if you have a shredder, this event will save you a lot of time if you have a lot of documents.

If these dates or times don’t fit your schedule, there are five other local credit unions holding similar events at one or two of their locations (plus one other credit union holding four like us) that you can take advantage through a cooperative arrangement we have with them. Please note that these other credit unions have a limit of five boxes per vehicle and may be using other shred companies.

Last year, we shredded nearly 16 tons of your documents! Stay tuned to find out how much we shred this year!

For help deciding how long you should keep your documents, here’s some advice from the National Endowment for Financial Education.

Note: We will not be recycling any old electronics at these events. Separate events for recycling old electronics will take place in the summer.