Recycling is one of the most important issues when dealing with waste management in the 21st century. Nobody knows this better than Re/Max Leading Edge Realtor and community activist, Sven Andersen.

Andersen and his family, in partnership with the Mission of Deeds foundation, recently hosted their first annual Shred It, Share It event in the Jenks Center parking lot. The recycling party urged residents to bring down their old files, plastics and other recyclables to properly dispose of such trash.

Anderson wanted to come up with an idea that would benefit Winchester.

"Speaking with my wife, we asked ourselves, 'What can we do for the town?' We had all these old files, so we decided to have a shredding event," Anderson said. "We hired a company called Shred It, who helped us with a donation of their truck, so we said, 'let's make a big thing of it.'"

In cooperation with Mission of Deeds, a foundation dedicated to helping homeless and under privileged families find homes or furniture, Anderson organized the event.

"Every time we sell or buy a house with our client we have the Mission of Deeds come over and pick up any left over furniture, it's something a little different," Anderson said. "It came about because we wanted to have this shredding event and also help Mission of Deeds, that's where all the profits of today's events are going. If everything runs well we hope to do it next year."

Profits come from donations and several tents Andersen organized supported by local businesses such as Marathon Moving Company, Herrera's Burritos of downtown Boston and Kids Party Productions who brought face painting, music, balloon twisting and even Elmo and Spiderman characters to the event.

Bruce Murison, Executive Director of the Mission of Deeds has worked with Anderson in the past trying to help homeless families.

"We're a non-profit organization that have been in operation for 17 years," Murison said. "The purpose is we take donations of furniture and household goods and we give them to people in need. We've helped about 8,500 families get going after homelessness.

"Our connection with Sven is through Winchester Rotary Club, he's one of our most dedicated and generous supporters. Sven has run tennis tournaments and all sorts of things to benefit us. It's all neighbors helping neighbors through donated goods and volunteer services."