Salina’s nearly half-century-old music store is partnering with their long-time string suppler, D’Addario, to offer free instrument restringings to area musicians. And maybe help save the planet along the way. “I was talking to them about what we can do for our consumers, and they mentioned that they had started this recycling program,” said Rick Hanson, of S.M. Hanson Music. “I thought it was a great idea — I’m not a super ‘green’ kind of guy, but I don’t want to throw away stuff that could be used.” On Saturday, S.M Hanson Music will offer a free recycle and restring event 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the company’s east Salina location, 335 S. Clark St., Salina. Musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with the Brand New D’Addario XT Electric or XT Phospher Bronze Acoustic strings, all at no cost. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through “Playback,” D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. “The price of new strings is about $16 a set, and $10 is our normal charge to put them on and tune it, so it’s a $26 service for free,” Hanson said. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and recycling company TerraCycle, organizers said. “The normal metal recycling guys don’t want to deal with strings,” Hanson said. “They are different metals and alloys, usually brass or bronze wrapped around a steel core. So we’ll take any type of instrument strings — violin, viola, cello, guitar, banjo, bass — whatever, we will collect them in a box to send them off. “TerraCycle specializes in very niche areas — along with strings, they offer recycling for Tide laundry detergent bottles, which I guess are constructed of plastics which the other recycling companies don’t want.” Musicians have been receptive to the recycling program, even going out of their way to mail instruments to Salina. “I had a lady from Madison, Wisconsin, found out we were participating and mailed me her strings,” Hanson said. “We’ve had a lot of interest and phone calls. I’ll have two guys in here, and that is going to be their only job Saturday, is changing strings.” To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.