RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. – Whether it’s tax season or spring cleaning, community members stopped by SSM Health to get sensitive documents shredded during an annual recycling event.
April 15th is usually the deadline to file taxes, but taxes are instead due by the 18th this year.
The tax deadline serves as a great reminder to start cleaning out old, but important materials, such as tax returns. The IRS recommends keeping tax returns for at least three years from the date you filed them. After that, you can choose to shred them.
“You can get rid of all that old paper, start anew, kind of clean out, just like a refresh,” said St. Louis County Resident, Lynn Wilson.
Whether it was old tax returns, bank records or other old materials, community members had a reliable space to dispose of them Saturday through SSM Health’s shredding event.
“They were awesome, professional, quick. I’m just relieved that it was out of my house and out of my car,” said St. Louis County resident Cara Berta.
Sandwiched between tax day on April 18th, in addition to Earth Day next Saturday, the event helped anyone, free of charge, to recycle.
“Care for creation is one of our core values. We want to be good stewards of all the gifts we’ve been given but certainly of the earth, so if we can help our community opportunities to shred and recycle papers that they have in their homes, we’ve had people come today saving stuff they’ve had for 35 years,” said SSM Health Mission Integration Leader Amie Konen.
For three hours, employees from Iron Mountain emptied countless bags and boxes to get shredded on site. Many see it as an effective way to prevent pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions all at once.
“Let’s just not throw it in the landfills, get it shredded up, get it recycled, so then it’ll come back as something better, and we just keep that cycle going, let’s keep the earth a little bit cleaner,” said Wilson.
Giving back to the planet one step at a time. A sea of documents was collected at the event.
If you missed your opportunity, and you want to do the same, there are plenty of other organizations that are hosting similar events.
- Collinsville Building and Loan from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on April 29.
- Free Community Banks will hold a drive-thru “shred day” at several locations in the coming weeks throughout Missouri and Illinois from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- The next one is scheduled for the location in Edwardsville, Illinois on May 6
