SAUGUS — The town hosted a Shred-It event, where residents could bring items to be disposed of in a safe, secure, and environmentally friendly manner.

“We’ve had one in the past, but through… people leaving the department, people coming in, it kind of got lost in the past couple of years,” the town’s Recycling Coordinator Bryan Moschella said.

The event was hosted in collaboration with Republic Services, the town’s trash servicer.

Residents could bring items they no longer needed, with accepted items ranging from paper documents to compact discs.

Moschella said that likely due to the gloomy weather, not many people had come by at the beginning of the event.

He said that a former volunteer for the event in the past had stopped by, and told him that there had always been a big turnout at this event.

However, Moschella did say that the residents that have come have been very excited about the event.

“You would be surprised at how many documents people have — the first guy who came in had like seven boxes of documents. I was so surprised, I was like ‘wow, that’s a lot of stuff,’” Moschella said.

A large majority of the materials brought by residents have been documents and folders, Moschella said.

He said that he had been receiving around five to 10 calls a month from residents showing interest in and asking about a shredding event, “the people have definitely wanted this,” Moschella added.

Moschella said that as a newer member of the department, and being from Saugus, he finds it to be good that he is able to help the town.

The plans are for the event to be a yearly occurrence, Moschella saying that Town Manager Scott Crabtree had expressed interest in it being a recurring event for the town.