Charity shop, recycle, or bin?

VickyA_2

This is the official oxfam press release:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/sorted060905.htm

Curry_Queen

gravitytolls wrote:

Nicki, I think if you can't sell it, then maybe the charity shops can't either.

I have noticed in the last few years, that charity shops appear to have much less good quality clothing, especially for children, than they uised to. I think this is due to the rise in ebayers.

I use ebay, because charity shops prices are rather high for many products, and it's often cheaper to ebay, not to mention not using fuel and paying parking charges.

Anyhoo, that's by the by, if you can't sell it, nor can they.

I guess Ebay is to blame somewhat for the demise of charity shop goods but personally I'd find it too much hassle to go through the process of listing clothing and then I guess having to wash and press them etc before posting them off so would much rather donate them to charity.

Saying that, I have bought clothing for myself from Ebay, and some has been second hand, but the the type of stuff I wear you'd be hard pressed to find in a charity shop anyway LOL! (black, goth, lace/velvet ... yes, even at my age still )

ashmit

I have three bags of clothes not really good enough to give to a charity shop that I'm waiting for the local soup kitchen to come and pick up. The People's kitchen will pick up bags of clothes from those in Newcastle upon Tyne. Don't want to post their number without permission so PM me if you want it.

filigree_2

Curry_Queen wrote:

Saying that, I have bought clothing for myself from Ebay, and some has been second hand, but the the type of stuff I wear you'd be hard pressed to find in a charity shop anyway LOL! (black, goth, lace/velvet ... yes, even at my age still )

Pah, what's age got to do with it I go to the Whitby Goth Weekends and all the town's charity shops save up their goth-ish donations and put them on display for the weekend

A friend of mine worked for a charity shop and they had to throw away mountains of crud, she had horror stories about donations of pee-stained underwear :eek: They also had donations left outside when the shop was closed, so by the time the staff brought them in they'd been ruined by rain/vandals/dog wee. The shop had to pay commercial rates to get huge amounts of rubbish taken away.

tiredwithtwins

just wanted to ask about other 'charities' which send round the bags for collection. We regularly get bags asking for donations 'to be sold to needy countries'........are they allowed to do this? I thought the whole point of donating stuff to charities were so that your donations would be sent to needy people, not SOLD to them!
I live in a pretty rough area, so we never get charities like Oxfam etc sending bags for collections! Only these that proclaim to sell them on. So far i have resisted leaving anything out, but have loads of clothes that could be used but no means to get them to places like oxfam (3 little kids on the bus and a bag full of clothes......I dont think so!) im running out of space!

anyone any comments/thoughts on the 'charity' that sells stuff on?

thanks
sue

Curry_Queen

filigree wrote:

Pah, what's age got to do with it I go to the Whitby Goth Weekends and all the town's charity shops save up their goth-ish donations and put them on display for the weekend

LOL! try telling that to my kids who think at my age I should start wearing "normal" clothes :rolleyes: If anything, I've got worse the older I've got :rotfl: I envy you going up to Whitby though, not been up there in years!

A friend of mine worked for a charity shop and they had to throw away mountains of crud, she had horror stories about donations of pee-stained underwear :eek: They also had donations left outside when the shop was closed, so by the time the staff brought them in they'd been ruined by rain/vandals/dog wee. The shop had to pay commercial rates to get huge amounts of rubbish taken away.

Urgh! It's amazing what some people seem to think they can fob off onto a charity shop. A friend of mine used to work for Oxfam sorting out their donations, which was great in one way as she'd tip me off when they had stuff in that I could buy for my boys (all designer-labelled sports stuff that I couldn't afford to buy usually) but I've also heard similar stories to you about some of the stuff they received _pale_

nicki_2

Could I just clear up a few things about my earlier post - I do try and sell MOST of my stuff on ebay first but mainly its books, household items (ornaments etc since I'm not an ornament person!) and clothes that DD has outgrown. I keep a seperate chairty pile where I put things I don't want to list due to their size, weight or the fact that they're not selling ATM (like a couple of books a few weeks back). If something is broken or damaged it goes in the bin when I'm decluttering. If an item of clothing is stained I try to get the stains out before selling. If the stain won't come out then I will either recycle the item by cutting it up, put it in a clothing bank (if I can find one - they're rare just like other recycling points in this city if you want to recycle something other than glass/cans/papers) or if the stain is REALLY bad (like beetroot on a white t-shirt) then I bin it.

Alot of the chairty shops around here sell stuff for alot cheaper than they would be on ebay as there are alot of people on income support etc who need to be able to buy the stuff really cheap. I would never give rubbish to a charity shop knowingly.

VickyA_2

tiredwithtwins wrote:

just wanted to ask about other 'charities' which send round the bags for collection. We regularly get bags asking for donations 'to be sold to needy countries'........are they allowed to do this?

We got a couple of bags through the door a few weeks ago - 2 in the same week! One was from a well known cancer charity and the other one was a hospital specialising in getting children better. I'm not sure about the ethics of the ones that you're talking about twt, but I'm quite picky about the charities that I give to. If I suspect anything, then I won't give! Maybe I'm wrong, but we can't help all charities all the time - we only have so much to give!

competitionscafe

Don't forget that some items which are not suitable for charity shops (electrical items, furniture, etc) can be freecycled - usually the person will come and collect it from you too. http://www.freecycle.org/display.php?region=United%20Kingdom

misfire

At my ex-work they collected loads of stuff for the tsunami (sp) appeal and send it out in lorries.

We had a huge warehouse full of stuff and took turns sorting it you would not believe the rubbish people sent in. Jeans with rips where you dont want them!lol! electric pancake making machine.... dirty pants (I kid you not).. some of the stuff was absolutely awful - how anyone could think it would have been of any use.

I also never take a bag from a charity shop - always put it in an existing carrier/my back pack as one of the shops said that it costs them 4p to produce a normal size carrier bag. I know it is advertising for them too but when you buy a 35p book it seems a crime to take a 4p bag for it (unless you fill it up and donate it back).