The new equipment is installed and ready to shred confidential documents for lower-volume, walk-in customers at Sunflower Recycling’s new drop-off location, 5523 10th.
The industrial-capacity machine can shred 800 pounds of paper per hour, which means increased efficiency and better service to customers, said Sarah Krom, recycling coordinator at Sunflower Diversified Services.
The non-profit agency, which serves people with delays and disabilities, has a long history of providing shredding and other recycling services. The recent expansion to a larger and more convenient drop-off facility allows collection of more materials than ever before.
“All our recycling services are important but we wanted to be able to encourage more businesses and individuals to shred their confidential papers,” Krom said. “The crimes of identity theft and theft of proprietary business information are on the increase.
“If documents are not properly destroyed, there are more opportunities for criminals to steal them,” she continued. “Such thefts have far-reaching consequences for you and those you do business with.”
Sunflower anticipates expanding its business pick-up service to meet the needs of current shredding customers, as well as those on the waiting list. “With this new equipment, we plan to honor more business pick-up requests within the next couple of months,” Krom said, noting the fee is 30 cents per pound.
Walk-in shredding customers with more than 300 pounds of documents are asked to go to the recycling processing plant at Sunflower’s main location, 8823 4th, which is south of the Great Bend Airport.
However, those with smaller quantities are encouraged to walk in to the 10th Street facility.
“Sunflower clients are employed as shredders at both locations and are eager to serve,” Krom commented. “We have nine people working in shredding services and another 30 are involved in pick-up services, material processing, baling and customer assistance.
“This is an especially important part of our business plan,” she added. “The people we serve want to work and earn their own paychecks, and our recycling venture allows many opportunities.”
Shredding customers can remain on site and observe the process or leave the items. Employees are trained to feed the documents quickly and nothing is removed from containers until it is fed into the shredder.
“The majority of our shredders have limited or no reading capabilities,” Krom said. “And our staff members receive training on confidentiality. We invite anyone to come out and watch the procedure; I think they will be impressed.”
Sunflower serves infants, toddlers and adults in Barton, Pawnee, Rice, Rush and Stafford counties.