The City of Santa Clarita, in collaboration with Burrtec Wastes and Iron Mountain Shredding Services, hosted a document and carpet disposal event at the Princesa Metrolink Station from 9 to 12 pm on Saturday, Oct. 4th, giving attendees the chance to responsibly declutter.
The event was a drive-through and was only available to individuals who registered via the Santa Clarita website and provided proof of residency. Each vehicle was allowed to dispose of five boxes filled with documents and one carpet roll.
As the attendees began to arrive, Burrtec employees were waiting with clipboards. Burrtec worker Charliese explained their main objective, “Our role in this event is to check all of our Burrtec customers in and redirect them to either the carpet disposal station or the document shredding station.”
With carpets being heavy and bulky, the program allowed attendees to easily drop off rugs for trucks to carry away. For the citizens of Santa Clarita, the program offered an effective and inexpensive way to dispose of their carpets.
As attendees progress through the event, employees directed cars, lifted heavy carpets, and disposed of boxes of documents. Truck driver Jose Castaneda, who helps attendees transport their rugs into disposal bins, shared, “We’re here to make things move smoothly. Some of these carpets are huge, so we help lift and load them into the trucks safely to keep the line moving and prevent backups.”
The employees’ goal is to ensure attendees can safely and easily dispose of their carpets and documentation. Fellow driver Kenny Vielman added, “It’s really a team effort, everyone from the check-in crew to the drivers works together to make sure residents can drop off their stuff quickly and safely.”
As the carpet disposal area focused on bulky items, just a few lanes over, another group of workers was busy helping residents safely destroy documents. They utilized trucks from Iron Mountain to handle the safe destruction of sensitive papers.
The program allowed citizens to dispose of these documents in a way they could trust. According to Iron Mountain staff member Daniel Escalante, “Everyone has private documents that they don’t trust anybody to discard,” he explained., “These shred trucks, they have a camera and it shows when they’re dumping the paperwork in. And the customers like to see that. They can see everything being destroyed through a video.”
However, there are precautions regarding document shredding that should be accounted for by customers attending. Escalante emphasized for citizens to avoid throwing batteries and other metal objects in with their documents. “This could cause a fire in one of these trucks, requiring 911 assistance, and could discontinue the entire gathering” Escalante explained. “So always double-check to make sure only paper is there.”
When attendees were asked about why they had attended this event, the majority of the answers emphasized that the event was free and well thought-out. Attendee Trevor Best stated, “I had just moved here and I had a lot of stuff, it’s a couple of decades worth. I got a shredder at home, but it’s slow. Or I gotta go to a shredding service somewhere and it’s expensive. So this is a nice option.”
Similarly, participants Pam and Ron Taylor discussed their smooth experience at the event compared to a different one in the past: “This was much more organized. We would give this experience a 10!”
If your family ever needs an eco-friendly way to get rid of unwanted documents or carpets, consider participating in this event next year. Monitor Green Santa Clarita for more details or updates on similar programs.
