• Editor’s Note: Kane County Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarland is herself one of Kane County’s great natural resources. In addition to coordinating the county’s super-popular monthly and quarterly recycling events and a handful of the most-read pages on the Kane County website, Jarland is a board member of the Illinois Recycling Association, and is a founding member of the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition.
• (SIDE NOTE TO LOCAL MEDIA: Please feel free to recycle this article!

Hey, Jennifer Jarland! How do I properly and safely recycle my confidential documents?

Jennifer says …

It’s usually at tax time that we become aware of how much paper we have filed away in cabinets, boxes and on closet shelves. Much of these have to be kept for a period of time, sure, but what about the old stuff that we don’t need anymore? Paper should always be recycled, not burned or trashed, so here are some great options:

• Many banks offer shredding events for their customers throughout the summer, so check with your bank first.
• The Geneva Earth Day Celebration is offering document shredding from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 18.
• Kane County has planned quarterly residential document shredding events for 2015, dates below.

These events are for residents only, not for businesses, but unfortunately we still receive business material which threatens the sustainability of the program. Businesses, even home businesses, should please contact RockTenn in Aurora at 630-898-4231 to ask about their free document destruction process.

Please read the following Document Shredding guidelines before attending one of the upcoming events on June 13, Sept. 12 and Dec. 12. The June event is also the annual Recycling Extravaganza.

We have a strict limit of four boxes (banker box size) or four bags (of equivalent size) per car. This is to assure that we can serve as many people as possible. Generally we are able to accept material from around 600 individual residents before the trucks are filled to the brim and we must stop receiving material near the end of the event. At each event we shred about 25,000 pounds, or 12 ½ tons of paper — two bulging trucks full of shredded documents!

Unfortunately, not all of them are confidential, and we fill the trucks with unnecessary bulk. You can help!

Please sort through your paper before you bring it and make sure that it is only confidential material that you are bringing! Not junk mail, not magazines, and not trash (whoever that was that brought us a soiled diaper — please take note). Envelopes are fine, but it would be better if you just put those in your regular home recycling, please.

To clarify what is confidential and what is not: Confidential documents contain information such as account numbers and account details, social security numbers, or birth dates. However, information such as name, address and phone numbers is not considered confidential as it can be found in phone directories or in common records. That kind of information does not need to be shredded.

Thank you for your part in making these events a success. By following the guidelines, the County can continue to provide this great free public service into the future!

More recycling information can be found at www.countyofkane.org/recycling.

Questions? Contact Kane County Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarland at 630-208-3841 or recycle@countyofkane.org