Jones County Sheriff’s Office Goes Green

The Jones County Sheriff’s Office went from harming the environment to saving it in less than a year.

For years the department burned confidential documents to get rid of them, but now there’s a new system designed to help the community.

Major Barbara Burnette says there are shred boxes in every corner, “They’re always reminded. If there’s not a shredder in there there’s a shredder box.”

Several times a week the Jones County Sheriff’s Department takes bags full of paper to get recycled. Burnette says it’s a better alternative than what use to happen.

“Somethings we have to destroy either by shredding or burning. So we’ve opted just to shred it versus burning it,” says Burnette.

The department has made even more changes to save paper like printing double-sided and offering recycling for plastics.

Burnette says since inmates can only use plastic bottles to drink out off plastics were over running the garbage cans here.

The Jones County Sheriff’s Department has also been working for about a year on changing their patrol cars to use propane instead of gasoline.

“It’s suppose to burn cheaper and better,” says Burnette.

According to Burnette, it’s these few ideas that are going along way and they’re continuing to look for more.

“If we can save and go green…then we’ll probably do it,” says Burnette.