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MISSION AND HISTORY
The mission of the Swap Shoppe is to reduce the number of household materials entering the waste stream at the Simsbury Transfer Station by making selected useful and safe items available free to other town residents. Additionally, our goal is to promote awareness of the importance of recycling efforts within our community, provide resource assistance for currently less advantaged families and thus to enhance compliance with terms of the Eno Will governing use of the Transfer Station property.
Creation of a Swap Center in Simsbury was first proposed to the Simsbury Board of Selectmen in January 2001. During the following year and a half, a trailer donated by the Governor's Horse Guard in Avon was moved to the Transfer Station and modified with donations of time and funds from private businesses, individuals and the Town of Simsbury. The Recycling Committee became the project manager for the Swap Center and the Civitan public service organization volunteered to provide on-site management. Formal approval was received from the Board of Selectmen and in the fall of 2002 the Swap Center officially opened its doors. In 2009 the current building was acquired with funds from CRRA and opened that fall.
The Swap Shoppe is a project of the Simsbury Recycling Committee and is managed by the Recycling Committee and volunteers from Civitan of Simsbury and the Farmington Valley.
HOW THE SWAP SHOPPE WORKS
The Swap Shoppe is located at the entrance to the Transfer Station at 74 Wolcott Road. The operating schedule is: Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., April through October, weather permitting.
The Swap Shoppe is a place to donate items that you do not need and/or to take home for your own use items that others have donated. Our mission is to reduce the amount of useful household materials entering the waste stream at our Transfer Station by making selected donated items available free for possession by other residents. The Swap Shoppe is open to Simsbury residents only . All items are free and available on a first come, first served basis. Items do not have to be swapped - residents are welcome to take home items without making a donation themselves.
We prefer not to have to enforce limitations on the number of items that visitors may retrieve and therefore ask that you do not take a large number of items from any one category and that overall the total number of selections be reasonable, such as 6 to 8 items per person or family per day. You will be required to complete an Indemnification Agreement for items that you select to take home.
We encourage you to consider making donations to the Swap Shoppe and to do so by visiting us during our hours of operation. Please do not leave items outside the Shoppe when we are closed. Donations must be given free and clear and should be useful, working, safe and preferably clean household items that another resident might use or want. Donations should be of a size and weight that ONE PERSON CAN SAFELY CARRY to or from the Swap Shoppe.
When donating to the Swap Shoppe, please do not expect to be able to leave items that for safety, health, condition or space limitations, we cannot accept. These include large appliances, certain electronic items, exercise equipment, automotive parts, baby car seats, carpeting, clothing, chemicals, foodstuffs, upholstered furniture, mattresses, power equipment and other items that are not acceptable or desired in the Swap Shoppe. Please see our Guidelines for Unacceptable Donations on this page.
For further information, questions or suggestions please contact:
Mary N. Turner, Simsbury Recycling Committee
or
the Simsbury Recycling Committee via the "Contact Us" page on the
GUIDELINES FOR UNACCEPTABLE DONATIONS
The following items cannot be accepted by the Swap Shoppe:
MAJOR APPLIANCES, including: |
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Dish Washers |
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Refrigerators |
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Clothes Washers |
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Freezers |
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Dryers |
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Stoves |
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Large Air Conditioners |
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Certain SMALLER APPLIANCES: |
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Microwaves |
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Heaters |
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Toasters & Toaster Ovens |
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Ironers |
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Other Heat Generating Appliances |
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Hair Dryers |
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Certain ELECTRONICS: |
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Televisions: large sets and sets not digital/cable ready. We are limited to 2 sets at a time. |
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Computers: Only complete, working computers not older than 4 years will be considered. |
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EXERCISE EQUIPMENT, including: |
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Treadmills |
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Exercise Machines |
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Weight Tables |
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Barbells |
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Rowing Machines |
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Trampolines |
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ADDITIONAL UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS: |
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Automotive Parts |
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Upholstered Furniture |
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Children's Car Seats & Cribs |
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Hazardous Materials |
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Carpets & Rugs |
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Mattresses & Box Springs |
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Clothing |
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Paints & Stains |
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Chemicals |
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Power Driven Lawn, Garden & Snow Equipment |
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Cosmetics |
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Weapons of any kind |
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Foods |
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Drugs |
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Broken, non-working, incomplete or unsanitary items. In addition, space limitations and desirability may limit the number of items or duplicate items that we can accept. |
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ITEMS USUALLY BUT NOT ALWAYS UNACCEPTABLE, including: |
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Skies-Downhill |
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Larger pieces of furniture |
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Children's Plastic Toys & Plastic Furniture |
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Determination will be by desirability, condition, size, redundancy and space availability |
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MAGAZINE SWAP - SIMSBURY LIBRARY
You are also invited to visit the Magazine Swap kiosk in the coffee bar-hospitality area at the Simsbury Library where periodicals donated by library patrons are made available free for keeping. Your own donations of recently published magazines (3 months old or less preferred) will in turn be appreciated by other patrons and may be left at the Magazine Swap kiosk. However, there is no obligation to donate in order to retrieve magazines from our display. The Magazine Swap is a project of the Recycling Committee in conjunction with the Simsbury Library. |
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