Charity collection bags

Caterina

A lot of charities select the best bits and give the other stuff to the rag man or others who collect for profit. There is no way of assuring that the stuff you donate does not get sold for profit.

But what is the problem in that? If you don't want the stuff, whoever comes and picks it up is going to get rid of it free for you, it gets used, it does not go into a landfill. I do not have a problem even with the freecycle thing about dealers - if that is the way they want to make money, why not, it is a perfectly respectable job and it frees me of my clutter - but this is only my opinion and I understand that others might have a different view and sensibilities about this issue.

Alison_Funnell

Be aware that some of the collection bins in carparks etc can be collection for clothes that are resold in Africa and Asia. Loads are ok but there are the odd rogue ones.

Seakay

My local charity shops not only collect sellable items, but will also take bags of clean unsellable clothes which they sell by weight as rags. This ensures that the maximum money goes to the charity of your choice - check first as not all premises have the storage space to enable them to do this and then have to send stuff to landfill.
I would always take things to where I want them to go - apart from anything else it is my experience that the bags through the door people rarely send anyone to collect when they say that they will!

Patchwork_Quilt

You could ring your local charity shop and ask if they will send a man with a van as you have a large amount of stuff to donate.

Most of the charities now leave bags that are collected by other people who will then pay the charity by weight. Personally, if I had something really nice I would rather see it fetching a decent amount in the shop than in a commercial concern.

Penelope_Penguin

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Edinburghlass_2

The clothing bins in the car parks, council recycling in my area are all collected by the rag man rather than the charity named on the bins so if you do have clothing that will fetch a reasonable price then please do take it to a charity shop.

soolin

Edinburghlass wrote: »

The clothing bins in the car parks, council recycling in my area are all collected by the rag man rather than the charity named on the bins so if you do have clothing that will fetch a reasonable price then please do take it to a charity shop.

I didn't know that thank you.

I use the book ones quite a bit as I get hundreds of unwanted books and I had noticed that the clothing bins are collected by chaps in hoodies and a plain white van.

I took a whole load of tagged clothes to my local charity shop the other day as I am really friendly with the ladies in there as I am always buying stuff and dropping stuff off. They said they get dealers buy stuff fom their shelves for a 'bag' price, ie they fill up black sacks with clothes and pay a set amount of a pound or two. Same for books, 2p a go in bulk. They said it has only been recently as in the past they had plenty of volunteers to keep the shop open and the stuff sorted, but as there are no young people vounteering anymore they just can't cope with the volume of stuff and have to shift it in bulk just to keep their stock rooms 'legal' for fire regs.

u1bd2005

also if you're donating old clothes to charity shops don't think that clothes with little marks or holes in them are no good, because most charity shops rag any unsellable clothes and they also recieve money for these rags (quite a bit of money too) and these then go on to either be recycled or to help people (usually third world countries)

I know that the charity shop I volunteer in make quite a bit of money through the clothes we rag, (It's usually around a couple of hundred pound a week) though we do have quite a few staff on hand and quite a few deliveries during the week, so we're probably turning over more donations than some charity shops, but even so, 'Every Little Helps' (sorry for stealing your saying Tesco )

LJM

i only ever donate to BHF and cancer charity we get pick ups quite regularly and my friend works as a collecter so he can do private pick ups which is handy as i always find loads more bits just after the bag has gone

Mids_Costcutter

In my town we receive around 5 of these donation bags from different charities and non-charities each week, including two from the Salvation Army each fortnight when the recycling box is returned. Unless you're a Premier League footballer buying 200 shirts one day on a whim, this is far more than anyone could use to donate unwanted clothes etc. so most of these bags go to waste. My brother in another city reports receiving a similar number of donation bags each week.

Does it really make economic sense for charities to send out so many plastic bags and collect so few filled bags with donations from the door step?