Salem residents with torn clothes, worn socks or broken electronics will have a place to bring them next month instead of throwing them away.
Zero Waste Salem, formerly SalemRecycles, is hosting a Repair Café on Nov. 7 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Community Life Center, 401 Bridge Street.
Appointments are required for the event.
Zero Waste Salem said appointments can be scheduled through an online form or by emailing zerowastesalemma@gmail.com.
Repair volunteers will be available to mend clothing, darn socks and tinker with electronics. Those services may change as volunteers are confirmed. The event is a chance for people to learn how to fix things while reducing waste.
The Repair Café will also include a Salem 400+ tie-in. To celebrate the anniversary, Zero Waste Salem said it will look for the oldest item brought in for repair.
The owner of that item will be recognized by the group for preserving an older possession and keeping waste out of the landfill.
In addition to repairs, the event will include TerraCycle collections for five categories of hard-to-recycle items. The announcement asks people to keep each TerraCycle stream separate.
The razor collection will accept all brands of reusable and disposable razors, blades and cartridges, along with flexible or rigid plastic packaging that comes with them.
The dental care collection will take non-electric toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers and toothbrush packaging from all brands.
The event will also collect used, dried Swiffer pads.
For Brita items, the list includes Brita dispensers, pitchers, bottles, standard filters, Stream filters, bottle filters, filter packaging and Stream pitchers.
A Burt's Bees collection is also planned. Accepted items include Burt's Bees lip balm, tinted lip care and lip treatment packaging, as well as tubes, caps, wands, bottles and pumps. Outer packaging for Burt's Bees towelettes and face masks and Burt's Bees plastic compacts will also be accepted.
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