Success: 8OYS Shred-A-Thon breaks record with electronics collected
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — 8 On Your Side’s 2024 Shred-A-Thon was a resounding success, with 26,339 net pounds of electronics collected. That’s up from 24,207 pounds last year.
“You’re definitely hitting a need in the community for Tampa,” said Gary Rabinowitz, owner of Urban E. Recycling, which partnered with News Channel 8 to collect electronics, destroy data and recycle what can be repurposed.
Rabinowitz sent a video to Better Call Behnken that shows the electronics going through the shredder back at their Tampa warehouse. He said it will likely take two days to destroy all the data because they are using a smaller shredder to accommodate taking a video as evidence of the destruction.
Urban E. Recycling now has thousands of laptops, printers, tablets, and other devices to properly dispose of at their facility in Tampa.
Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken recently got a behind-the-scenes tour. When hard drives emerge from the shredder, nothing is left but small bits and dust.
In addition to electronics, viewers brought boxes of documents, such as bank statements and tax forms. Those were shredded on site.
Some people said they waited all year for this event.
“We have a lot of shredding that we need to do,” said Hellen Lopez who waited in line with her daughter. “Bills that we paid and tax forms.”
The mother and daughter brought two boxes full of documents.
Meanwhile, Guillermo Sanchez was first in line and said he had four boxes of documents, some dating back 20 years. He said he felt confident that Shred-A-Thon would help him keep those documents out of the hands of criminals who could use them to steal his identity and his money.
“I hear some horror stories about people picking up things in the trash can and stealing their information. So, I didn’t want to take any chances,” Sanchez said.
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