Thomas Polinard, who is 42, is general manager of Shredco, a company that destroys and recycles documents in San Antonio.
I would have preferred to be an astronaut, but shredding is the family business. Even in elementary school, I helped my dad with Shredco. After I graduated high school he kept asking me to work at the company, which he had been running for more than forty years. Eventually I took over.
The majority of our customers are lawyers, doctors, and accountants. Insurance companies too. Dentists are fun because a lot of times they’ve got X-rays mixed in with the paper. You’ve got to take those out if you want to be right with the recycling world. Electronics are a growing part of the business, and disposing of those is complicated because you need to separate the recyclable metals from the rest of the product. I had a customer come in with some cellphones and hard drives, and I smashed them in a controlled spot, then put the parts in a bucket in a vinegar bath. That turned them into a paste, and I used a calcium bicarbonate solution to sweat out the metals.
About half of our business is on-site, and the other half we pick up. We have a truck that will mix, compact, and shred the material. I’ve seen some things that would scare you. Once we were shredding papers for a doctor, and he asked us to dispose of some tumors preserved in formaldehyde too. At least they were in jars and not mixed with the paper. I’ve seen family photos, needles, surgical suture kits, money—you’d be surprised how often cash turns up. Usually just a dollar here or there, but once I found a couple hundred-dollar bills. There was no way to know whose they were—they came from a shared container—so I pocketed them.
We’d been shredding for a school district for thirty, forty years. A few years ago I gave them an estimate and they didn’t get back to me. Then when I was at the recycling center, I saw pallets of paper from that district, and it wasn’t shredded. I’ve also seen the city’s legal files there—paper lying out on the floor with sensitive information about who the district attorney was prosecuting or whatnot.
A couple of years ago I was doing a job at a construction company, and I heard a loud bang from the shred truck. Later the customer called and asked if we’d found anything unusual. Eventually they admitted that someone had accidentally thrown in a couple of guns. Yeah, that wasn’t good.
If I can, I’ll reuse before I recycle. At home, my keys, tools, and H-E-B bags are all hung on the wall by three-ring-binder claws that I took apart and mounted to use as hooks. To me, that’s common sense. I don’t know why people throw away so much stuff and then turn around and buy more stuff.
This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Thomas Polinard, Commercial Shredder.” Subscribe today.
