The Swampscott Solid Waste Advisory Committee held its bi-annual Repair Café at the Senior Center on Saturday to help reduce waste by providing resources to fix broken items so they are not thrown away.
Swampscott’s Repair Café, which was hosted from 9 a.m. to noon, was inspired by the events held in Salem and Beverly of the same name, where locals can bring in broken items to be repaired for free, or receive advice on how to repair it if it cannot be fixed at the café. Locals were able to have access to a wide array of repairs, from iPad charging ports to fixing up pants and pillows.
“If they have stuff and are thinking of throwing it away, I’d like to have it trigger, ‘Oh no, I’m going to bring it to the Repair Café.’ I’d like that to be an automatic thing for people,” said Alix Smullin, a member of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.
The first Swampscott’s Repair Café took place in October of last year. The committee hopes to see an increase in both volunteers and interested locals on a regular basis. They plan on holding the Repair Café twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
Smullin ran the Repair Café with Emily Westhoven and Wayne Spritz of the Swampscott Solid Waste Advisory Committee, as well as Helen Tieger of the Board of Health, who created a schedule with 30-minute blocks for repairs.
Bill Tierney volunteered for the Repair Café to give back to his community. He used his experience with technology that he gained from his work at Microsoft to help people with their phones and computers, as well as common household appliances like vacuum cleaners and digital scales.
“Things are generally fixable, and most people don’t really know that,” Tierney said. “Feeling like you can come through the door and say, ‘Hey, can you fix this?’ We might not be able to fix it, but we’ll probably give you advice about how you can get it fixed. That’s good.”
Toni Bandrowicz came with fabric and stuffing she had kept in her attic for years. She asked for help to make them into pillows, rather than throwing it away. Alexa Ogno, a volunteer from the Salem Repair Café who came to help out in Swampscott, sewed some pillows together for Bandrowicz.
“It’s definitely a great experience,” Bandrowicz said.
Smullin intends to hold another Repair Café in the fall, and told the Swampscott Tides that she hopes people will hold onto their repairable items for it.
