CHICAGO – Area residents are invited to protect themselves from identity theft by taking advantage of a free document shredding event at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences Saturday, Aug. 11.

State Senator Bill Cunningham and State Rep. Fran Hurley are co-hosting the service, which will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at the school, located at 3857 W. 111th St., Chicago.

Residents can bring confidential documents that are printed with personally identifiable information to be safely shredded. This includes old bank statements, old pay stubs, tax returns older than 7 years, bills, receipts, invoices, credit card applications and outdated medical records. (More details about what will or won’t be accepted can be found below.)

Some restrictions apply:

• The service is free and available to residents of the 18th Senate District and the 35th House District. No commercial document shredding available.
• Participants are limited to two boxes per car.
• Paper clips, staples and other bindings should be removed from all documents before shredding.
• Cardboard boxes may not be left at the event site.
• Shredding will be done until the shred trucks reach capacity.

In addition to helping people protect their personal information, shredding documents helps keep paper out of landfills. For more information, call Senator Cunningham’s office at 773-445-8128.

Shred event guide

It’s difficult to provide a comprehensive list of every acceptable or unacceptable document, but the following is a basic guide.

ACCEPTABLE AND OPTIMAL: White office paper (copier, computer, legal, letterhead, loose-leaf, cash receipts, memos and other types of white paper) with any colored ink.

ACCEPTABLE: Mixed paper – colored copier paper, windowed or windowless envelopes, yellow legal pads, manila and colored file folders, message pads. Also, flyers, pamphlets and brochures.

NOT ACCEPTABLE: Newspapers, magazines, plastic bags or sleeves, bubble-insulated envelopes, license plates, cardboard (including hardcovers of books and composition folders), three-ring binders, notebook spirals, plastic file covers, hanging file folders, accordion folders, paper towels, napkins, tissues, CDs, disks, X-rays, blueprints, Styrofoam, prescription medicine bottles, and no electronics or hard drives of any kind.

STAPLES AND PAPER CLIPS: Small staples and small, plain metal paper clips on documents are OK. Please remove plastic binder clips and large metal or plastic fasteners.