TEXT OF STORY

Stacey Vanek-Smith: We’ve come a long way since the lows we saw in March — that’s when the Dow fell below 7,000 for the first time in 12 years. You might have some 401K statements from that time you’d like to get rid of. If so, the Big Apple’s offering a cathartic solution: Yesterday, a shredder was set up in Times Square in celebration of the third annual Good Riddance Day. Rafael Cohen was there.

Rafael Cohen: People standing in line wanted to forget everything from noisy neighbors and student loans to cellulite. So they wrote those words on pieces of paper and fed them into a shredder.

Shredder fan: Happy New Year.

Lori Raimondo helps organize Good Riddance Day. She says New Year’s Eve is all about hope for the future.

Lori Raimondo: And before you can start anew for the New Year, you really gotta say goodbye to some bad things first.

Brett Ortiz, a security guard from Manhattan, knows all about that. He broke up with his wife this year. And lost his job.

Brett Ortiz: You know, I was a very faithful worker, I was on time, you know I did my job, and they just got rid of me.

Ortiz fed a drug test he passed for work into the shredder. Raimondo says people like Ortiz were common this year.

Raimondo: There’s a theme for each year and this year you do see quite a few that have to do with losing a job and they want to say goodbye to looking for a job.

Ortiz is hoping for the best. At least he found a new girlfriend.

In New York, I’m Rafael Cohen for Marketplace.