MASON (FOX19) - Mason-based Cintas Document Management says their business of shredding secret documents has a beneficial side effect: they've saved 1.6 million trees through the first ten months of this year.

Cintas Document Management is a subsidiary of Cintas that goes to companies who collect their old confidential documents to have them shredded.  Cintas sends out trucks to shred the documents at the curbside or in the client's driveway.  Some customers also drop off paper at Cintas locations, where it is shredded on-site.

The trucks then take the shredded paper to paper plants where it is processed to remove plastic, staples, and foreign objects.  Then the paper is recycled into new paper.

The trucks are a common sight on Downtown streets, and judging by the numbers, they are a common sight in many places.

Cintas says that besides the trees, the recycling saves more than 196,000 barrels of oil, 688 million gallons