April showers bring free shredders!

The season for spring cleaning and filing taxes is a great time to destroy sensitive documents you no longer need. But if the thought of tediously hand-feeding piles of personal papers into your home shredder makes it tough to get motivated, we have a solution. Attend a free community shred party and watch the professionals pulverize your papers into bits in mere minutes.

“Sticky fingers like personal papers,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said. “Don’t throw your life in the trash. Shred instead.”

Businesses and public agencies have teamed up with commercial shredding companies to destroy documents for Washington residents at events from Forks and Sequim to Tukwila and Longview.

The Attorney General’s Office, which has made reducing identity theft in Washington a top priority, lists free shred events at www.atg.wa.gov/shredathon.aspx, including those organized by financial institutions, police programs and others. Our site also includes a list of suggested items to shred, as well as guidelines on how long to keep records. To include your event, contact me at allconsuming@atg.wa.gov.