Wondering what to do with that mixer you bought to make bread during the pandemic now that you’re not using it anymore? Thinking of picking up a guitar, but aren’t ready to invest in one? Here’s a deal that might be hard to resist.
Starting Saturday, Plymouth residents will be able to turn in items they no longer want and pick up free items at a new town-run swap shop run out of the old Cedarville transfer station site at 33 Hedges Pond Road.
“It gives a place where if people have stuff they don’t want and they don’t already have a place to donate it or give it, they can bring it to the swap shop [and] drop it off – as long as it’s in good condition and a desirable item,” said James Downey, Plymouth’s assistant director of public works. “And then other people can come and find something that they want to take.”
Residents can donate and shop for free items from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday until the end of October.
Downey emphasized the hours of operation because the Department of Public Works does not want anything left at the gate and plans to vet donated items to ensure that the swap shop doesn’t turn into a disposal site.
“You need somebody to say whether or not we take it,” he said. “An old dog bed? No. We don’t want that.”
After closing in late October, the swap shop will go on hiatus until May.
There is no charge for using the swap shop, which will be staffed with volunteers who will receive and test donated items to make sure that they are in good working condition. Close to 40 people have volunteered already, Downey said.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is funding battery packs to test small appliances to make sure they run and has granted $6,000 for a shed, said Ken Stone, chair of Plymouth’s Recycling Committee.
Residents can drop off housewares, kitchen items (excluding non-stick pans), working small appliances, lamps, toys, games, sports equipment (no shoes, skates, or cleats), hand tools, and small power tools. A more complete list can be found here.
Textiles, some baby equipment and stuffed animals, food, medicine, cleaners and liquids of any kind, pesticides, paints, herbicides, garden chemicals, hazardous materials, television sets, monitors and computers, large furniture or appliances, batteries, light bulbs, and magazines are among the items that will not be accepted.
Wellfleet, Chatham, Brewster, and Falmouth already have swap shops. In Falmouth, an estimated 85 tons of items that otherwise could have been thrown away have found new uses thanks to its swap shop, according to the chair of that town’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.