Thousands Show Concern for Identity Theft at Tampa Paper Shredding Event

TAMPA, Fla., April 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 3,000 people lined their cars around the Florida Westfield Mall parking lots in Countryside, Citrus Park and Brandon on Saturday (April 16, 2011), all waiting for their turn to send their important documents through Proshred's secure mobile shredders. In less than eight-hours, the Proshred shredding trucks securely destroyed thousands of documents producing 94,000 pounds of paper for recycling.

"It is obvious that people are concerned about securely destroying their private documents, and that comes as no surprise when you consider that the perpetual occurrence of identity theft has made it the fastest growing crime in America," said Mark MacMillan, general manager of Proshred.

Most of the attendees have paper shredders at home or in their office. They attended the shredding event to save time.

"It takes us just minutes to shred the amount of paper that would take hours using a small standard shredder," said Mark.

Proshred partnered with ABC Action news, Westfield Shopping Centers, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office, Clearwater Police and WQYK Radio to make this event a success. Proshred has been hosting charitable shred-a-thon's for years to demonstrate their commitment to the Tampa Bay community. This is the largest event Florida has seen in both attendance and volume of paper destroyed.

The shred-a-thon was within one week of Earth Day. By participating, everyone was doing their part to help the environment.

"We recycle all the paper that is shred. If these individuals had destroyed their documents at home or at work, most of that waste would surely have been dumped in a landfill," said Mark.

For the amount of paper shred and recycled at the April 16 shred-a-thon, PROSHRED SAVED*:

• 799 trees.
• 17,860 gallons of oil.
• 141 cubic yards of landfill space.
• 188,000 kilowatts (or 188 megawatts) of energy.
• 329,000 gallons of water.

*Source: Recycling Facts

About PROSHRED

Proshred is a locally owned company specializing in secure mobile document destruction. Our clients can rest assured that their most sensitive and proprietary materials are destroyed onsite in our state-of-the-art shredding vehicles...prior to leaving their facility. Business, home-office and residential clients have entrusted Proshred to maintain their information security, legislative compliance and personal and professional privacy for over 20 years. Proshred is the only mobile service to have met the rigorous operating standards applied by the independent auditors of the International Standards Organization. Proshred was recently added to the prestigious list of 2011 Earth Charter US Sustainable Business Award winners.

SOURCE Proshred