Imagine your in-laws or your best friend leaving a box on your doorstep filled with an unwashed white T-shirt worn while picking raspberries, a cookie jar with a broken lid, Gladware plastic caked with egg yolk, and a toaster that sparks. You're told that after a little presoaking, elbow grease and tinkering, all will be in nearly new condition.
Welcome to the daily grind at any local charity.
On any given day at Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota, about 15 to 20 percent of items received are not suitable to be sold in their stores, said marketing director Brian Becker. While the vast majority of donations are salable and deeply appreciated, said Becker, Goodwill in Minnesota spends about $600,000 a year on trash removal, or about 3 percent of annual sales. It's money that charities would prefer to use on their good deeds, not the garbage.
This is a real problem. I used to volunteer sorting donated baby clothes at a crisis pregnancy center in Minneapolis. While most of the donated goods were in fine shape, I was often astonished at what some people thought the poor ought to be wearing. Stained, torn clothing with missing buttons, sometimes dirty, sometimes reeking of cigarette smoke or urine. And we didn't have space to "host" all the clothing we got, anyway, so most of that stuff was thrown away.
That's sad... I do think I would consider donating and probably have donated stained-or-discolored-but-not-disgusting stuff. Is that okay? You know, like once-white newborn t-shirts that are pretty much grey now, or maybe something with one or two small, light spots that don't suggest "someone pooped right here" or "this was forgotten and growing mold, but we think we washed all that away." We are definitely people who donate in spurts, so it would probably be mixed in with a lot of good stuff, so I hope no one ever got that disheartening "you people can have our trash" feeling off of us... We certainly still put our kids in things with stains or holes (like footed jammies the toes poke through) at times! I probably draw more of a line on what we give away than what we'll let our kids wear in a pinch.
Posted by: ro | 29 July 2006 at 11:51 AM