Students, staff and local residents got rid of their old junk and saved the environment at the same time.
The Sustainability Resource Center, Staff Council, UIT and the Salt Lake Police Department teamed up to help people declutter their homes. An estimate of 500 cars lined up in the Rice Eccles Stadium parking lot to shred unwanted documents and dispose of expired medicines and old electronics.
Jake O’Connor, a member of Staff Council, said at the end of the day there were three semi trucks with four tons of shredded papers each. In addition to old computers and cell phones, O’Connor said he saw “crazy old electronics” such as a Rumba and a Beta Max Player.
O’Connor said they only partly hold the collection in April because of Earth Day.
“It’s after tax season, and it’s a part of spring cleaning to want to get rid of clutter and we want to take it as a cool way to raise scholarship money,” he said.
Fifty percent of the revenue from the collections will go towards scholarships, O’ Connor said.
“We won’t be raising a huge amount, but … every bit counts,” he said.
Local businesses such as Shred Master donated their time and resources to the event.
The Salt Lake City Police Department came to help monitor what was going through the shredder. One local man who donated told Officer Thornton that the event was “rocking the Earth.”
@JulianneSkrivan