Big shredder does the job

LAFAYETTE — A job that can be described as a never-ending grind may get most people down in the dumps but for Branchville resident Skip Klimas of SK Paper Shred, the daily grind is job security. Parked at the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority facility in Lafayette Friday morning, Klimas fed his paper shredding truck a diet of personal and confidential documents. “I usually get about 125 customers, depending on the weather,” said Klimas. A good morning’s work results in 5,000 pounds of shredded paper. Klimas charges customers $6 to securely shred a file box of documents. With identity theft on the rise, shredding sensitive and confidential documents is recommended by many. “Any shredding is good," said Klimas, referring to the machines sold by office supply stores for home and small business use. He explained that dedicated identity thieves could scan every fragment of a collection of shredded documents into a computer and use sophisticated software to reassemble the information. The process makes a great addition to any spy novel or movie, but it is not the scenario played out by the average identity thief. “Thieves want to make a quick grab of an intact document containing usable information,” Klimas said. Not your typical shredder Unlike typical strip or crosscut shredders, the SK shredder, built by Alpine Shredders, uses a commercial process known as pierce and tear. The final product resembles mulch. The latest model, built on a Freightliner chassis, can process “6,500 pounds per hour,” Klimas said. After securing the information by shredding, businesses still have to dispose of the shreds in an environmentally responsible manner. The shredded product is unloaded at the SCMUA facility. “The dump can sell the product,” Klimas said. After calculating how much time and money they'd have to spend to buy a sophisticated shredder, feed in the documents and bring the shreds to a recycling center, businesses most often call Klimas to destroy unneeded documents. “People and businesses come to us because it is cheaper,” Klimas said. Stephanie Jordan of Stockholm took advantage of the mild weather to bring some documents for destruction. “I don’t have a shredder at home,” said Jordan. “This service is convenient.” Paper shredding is available at SCMUA in Lafayette the third Friday of every month and at the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice in Newton as a fundraiser the second Saturday of every month. — By John Church