Within minutes of placing two large, secure bins for unwanted mail at the downtown post office, the containers were used.

Kodiak resident Duncan Fields stopped at his mailbox at the post office, stepped over to a table and began sorting his mail. As he sorted, he dropped unwanted items into the slot at the top.

“I think you’ll find a lot of grateful people,” said Marion Owen, member of the Solid Waste Advisory Board and avid recycler.

Owen and Rick Pillans, plant manager for Threshold Recycling and also a member of SWAB, worked together to provide the containers for post office customers. With two other employees of Threshold, they delivered the containers to the downtown post office and the Safeway location.

Pillans said this morning that trash cans used to be available to dispose of unwanted mail, but the increasing incidents of identity theft caused their removal.

“People were rummaging through the cans,” Pillans said.

Owen said she remembered standing at the counter listening to someone telling a clerk about their experience with identity theft. The person had about $6,000 stolen from them after some blank checks sent by a credit card company were stolen from the trash. The trashcans were removed last year.

“There was a lot of grumbling,” Owen said of the cans removal.

Threshold purchased six cans with locking lids to collect unwanted mail. Two will be at the downtown office and one at Safeway. They will be changed out periodically.

Everything that goes into the slit at the top will be taken back to the recycling center and put through a commercial shredder, then recycled.

“If you put it in there, it’s getting destroyed,” Pillans said.

The contents are accessible to the two people who have keys, who will make sure all that is inside is shredded.

The commercial shredder was purchased with a grant of $25,000 last year, Pillans said. It is a service offered to the public at a minimal fee. Some places, such as attorney’s offices, use the service to dispose of paperwork that may contain private information.

Pillans said the containers are secure, but if someone does try to gain access, they can be charged with breaking and entering because the containers are private property.

Pillans said the cans are weighed each time they are brought in to track how much unwanted mail is being shredded and recycled instead of going into the landfill.

Mirror writer Misty Maynard can be reached via e-mail at mmaynard@kodiakdailymirror.com.