Shred Documents, Recycle Electronics, Drop Off Unwanted Items At Spring Cleanup Event

LAUREL, MD — A spring cleanup will take place in Laurel April 16 from 8 a.m. to noon. Residents can recycle electronics, shred unwanted papers and drop off their Styrofoam and recyclable items at the city's public works department, 305-307 First Street.

All vehicles are to enter through the First Street entrance. Residents are asked to remain in their cars, have IDs ready to verify place of residence within city limits and place items for shredding and to be dropped off in the trunks of their cars if possible. Employees will remove items from the trunks of cars for this event.

Televisions, stereos, computers, game systems and their accessories can be dropped off free of charge. Items such as microwaves, blenders, toaster ovens, vacuums and other electrical items that may have a digital display or circuitry are not considered electronics for this event; only entertainment/media electronics will be accepted. Electronics will be recycled by Securis – a local electronics recycling, data destruction and hard drive shredding company.

Chesapeake Paper Systems also will be on site with their shredding truck to shred documents safely. Drop off documents or stand by and watch them get put into the shredder truck. The shredding truck will accept old X-rays and other film; however, those items do not get shredded on site. Make sure no non-paper items are mixed in with your documents, such as plastic floppy disks.

Officials are limiting paper drop-offs to five boxes per trip. Residents and businesses are allowed to make multiple trips to drop off additional paper for shredding.

GreenDrop will have a vehicle on site to collect gently used home goods. Residents can drop off clothing and small house household appliances that will generate funding for GreenDrop's nonprofit partners. A full list of acceptable and unacceptable items can be found at www.gogreendrop.com.

Bring Styrofoam packaging to the event and EPS Industry Alliance will collect and recycle the products into things such as surfboards, picture frames, construction material and new packaging.

Throughout May, the department of public works will be offering Monday yard debris collections in addition to Wednesday yard debris collections. Yard debris pickups are free but residents must call, email or submit a request online for yard debris pickups.