Chatham’s 12th Annual Book And Media Swap This Weekend

CHATHAM – After a hiatus due to the pandemic, last year’s Book and Media Swap was possibly the biggest ever; boxes and boxes of items were donated by residents who had used the lockdown to weed out their book and movie collections.

Organizers expect that this year’s swap, scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, will be just as robust, as digital media continues to replace physical books, DVDs and CDs.

This decision to expand this year’s swap, the 12th, to two days was based on the volume of material last year, said Health Agent Judith Giorgio.

“We had so much left over last year that we decided we should leave it up another day,” she said. Seventy boxes of boxes are being donated by the Eldredge Public Library alone, most of which are withdrawn or duplicate volumes as well as extra copies of books donated to the library’s book sale.

The health department sponsors the event in conjunction with Chatham Recycles.

The premise of the Book and Media Swap is simple: residents drop off books and other media that they no longer need, and on Saturday and Sunday, the public can stop by the annex and comb through the items and take what strikes their fancy, all at no charge, and it isn’t necessary to drop off items to take them home.

Items that are accepted for the swap include books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records and jigsaw puzzles.

“Puzzles were very popular last year,” noted Giorgio.

There are a few caveats. All items should be brought to the annex in sturdy boxes or bags; homemade videos or cassettes, encyclopedias, electronic devices like DVD players or VCRs are not accepted, and books should not be moldy.

It takes a lot of effort to organize the thousands of items that are donated. Giorgio said a good slate of volunteers has signed up to help with sorting on Friday as well as help out during the swap on Saturday and Sunday. As at the past several swaps, members of Barnstable County AmeriCorps will be on hand as well.

“We need those young bodies on Sunday to help pack everything up,” she said. At the end of the swap, anything left over will be brought to the transfer station and placed in book recycling bins.

This year’s swap is about a month later than past events, Giorgio said, and coincides with a number of Earth Day events being held throughout town this week. That’s appropriate, she added, since the purpose of the swap is to recycle perfectly good books and other media and keep them out of the solid waste stream.

The swap opens at 9 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday and runs until 2 p.m. on both days. Items can be dropped off at the lower level of the annex daily through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, visit www.chathamrecycles.org.