Comerica Bank’s Metro Detroit Shred Day returned to Farmington Hills this past weekend at the bank’s Great Lakes Campus. The annual community event encouraged the public to bring paper documents and computer equipment and accessories, free of charge, for safe and secure destruction and recycling.
Shred Day targets residents, small businesses and philanthropic organizations on an ongoing effort to prevent fraud and reduce landfill waste, while also increasing food security for members of the community in need.
This marks the second year that Comerica hosted Shred Day in Farmington Hills at its corporate operations campus that opened in 2024.
Comerica partnered with Iron Mountain Incorporated and Information System Resources (ISR) to offer participants an opportunity to securely dispose of sensitive documents, computers, keyboards, monitors and cellular devices.
Along with securely disposing of sensitive documents and electronics, Comerica helped fight hunger by partnering with Gleaners Community Food Bank. Gleaners volunteers were on site collecting non-perishable food and cash donations from the generous Shred Day participants to benefit the organization that serves the five counties in Southeast Michigan.
“Shred Day offers our community and small businesses an opportunity to help protect their personal and sensitive information from identity theft and potential breaches,” said Steve Davis, Comerica Bank Michigan Market President.
“As fraud losses continue to rise according to the Federal Trade Commission, we must do our due diligence in safeguarding both paper and electronic data from exposure to criminals,” Davis continued.
“Safe storage and destruction are critical steps to avoiding potential fraud, and we appreciate Iron Mountain and Information Systems Resources for their support in providing these services to the community free of charge during our annual event.”
This year, over 900 vehicles were processed, and the crew serving the event for Iron Mountain destroyed 130,500 pounds of paper. This was the fifth-highest total shredded since the Metro Detroit Shred Day event first began in 2008. Since Comerica shifted to a single site event in 2013, this year’s tally was the third-most over the past 11 years and the second consecutive year that Shred Day resulted in over 130,000 pounds of paper securely destroyed.
Participants also took advantage of the free service to recycle old computer equipment and accessories by Information Systems Resources, while setting an event record by recycling more than 20,000 pounds of equipment and devices.
Beyond fraud prevention, Shred Day also contributes to sustainability and food security initiatives.
“As one of the more dynamic community engagements, Comerica’s Shred Day in Southeast Michigan combines fraud prevention with positively impacting the environment and reducing food insecurity in our region,” said Davis. “Not only are paper and computer electronics recycled and kept out of landfills, but those using this service over the years have also been quite generous in supporting Gleaners in their ongoing mission to feed those in need with nutritious and healthy meals.”
In its 16-year history, Comerica Shred Day in metro Detroit has collected over 1.4 million pounds of shredded documents, which has then been turned into recycled pulp. The process of recycling paper into new paper products generates 74% less air pollution and uses 50% less water than producing paper from traditional forest products.
This year marked the 11th year of Gleaners Community Food Bank’s inclusion in the annual event. The generosity of the participants resulted in more than 1,400 pounds of food donated along with over $5,300 in monetary donations. Due to an additional corporate partner of Gleaners matching donated funds this summer, Shred Day will generate over 33,000 meals.
Gleaners provides food to nearly 350 pantry partners partner agencies, including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, schools and other agencies across the region, and supplement the efforts of those partners by offering direct service drive-up grocery distributions. Every dollar donated this summer to Gleaners will generate six meals for those in need.
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