CHILLIWACK, BC (June 11, 2012) - Chilliwack residents swung into spring cleaning with unprecedented enthusiasm on Saturday, June 9, as dozens of cars waited their turn to drop off unwanted paper documents at the semi-annual Emterra Environmental-Chilliwack Shred-a-Thon.
The event serves two purposes. It gives Chilliwack residents a secure recycling service for paper documents and through donations of food and cash in exchange for the free shredding service, they provide essential help to the local Salvation Army food bank.
"It was a fantastic turn out," Emterra's Operations Manager, Terry Dawson, reported. "We were supposed to start at 10 but by 9:30, we had 15 cars lined up and a non-stop stream of vehicles continued until we closed at 2 p.m. The shred truck was completely full. By comparison, it had been only half full at the last Shred-a-Thon in December."
Many residents brought in 10 or more boxes of papers to be shredded. Terry noted the turnout was so overwhelming that the shredding truck had to be stopped 15 minutes before the close of the event for fear the back door would burst off its hinges. He was also left with hundreds of cardboard boxes that had to be flattened for recycling.