MARBLEHEAD — After nearly three years, the Marblehead Swap Shop is open for business at the transfer station site on Woodfin Terrace.
Andrew Petty, director of public health, said the popular swap shop, or swap shed, is run by volunteers and has been closed for the past two and half years because of construction at the transfer station.
The swap shed is open from May to October on Saturdays from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at 5 Woodfin Terrace, and allows residents to drop off usable items for other residents to take at no charge, according to the town website.
Any resident with a facilities sticker may take items for free from the swap shop, and no vehicle will be allowed access without a valid Marblehead resident facility sticker, according to the town website.
Petty said the shop, which opened on Aug. 5, is currently being run out of containers — 8 x 20 shipping containers — on the transfer station site until the new swap shop building is constructed.
Unacceptable swap items include clothing, computer monitors, hazardous materials, large appliances, large furniture and TVs. Petty said swap items usually include dishes, home goods and kids’ bikes.
Generally, Petty said people make use of the swap shop after they have bought new things and don’t want their old items anymore. Because of the demographics of Marblehead, typically a lot of good stuff comes through the shop, he added.
Petty said the swap shop is an important resource because it’s part of recycling — rather than items being thrown out in the trash, materials can be reused.
The new swap shop building is part of Phase 2 of the Marblehead transfer station upgrade, along with a new transfer station building and new scale house, Petty said. Town officials previously said $37 million had been allocated for the upgrade, but Petty did not have a figure for updated construction costs.
Phase 1 of the project consisted of landfill capping, which began in 2014 and wrapped up last November, and accounted for more than $17 million of the funds allocated for the upgrade.
Marblehead entered into a consent decree with the state Department of Environmental Protection to cap and close the landfill in the early 2000s. Before the capping, the town hadn’t landfilled material since 1975.
The town’s existing landfill was constructed in the 1930s and the incinerator was built in 1950. During those years, there was open pit burning, with material, including products containing lead and heavy metals brought on site, burned and placed in the landfill.
Most of the 1950 transfer station building has been demolished, but the trash compactor will remain in place until a new transfer station is constructed. Petty said there isn’t a date scheduled for when construction will begin.
