The story is the same in suburbs across Australia, the weekend clean out has resulted in mountains of clothes, toys, books and other household items sitting (or often strewn) outside the local op-shop.
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| The pile of dumped goods first thing in the morning |
But what actually happens to all these unsolicited ‘donations’? Well from our experiences yesterday helping the lovely crew at the East Kew Vinnie’s shop – it’s a bit of a sad and frustrating story for all involved.
Most of the items ‘donated’ over the weekend are actually dumped. Leaving items out the front of a store, exposed to the elements means that many of them get wet and damaged before they even get inside the store, rendering them un-sellable.
Yesterday morning a few of the repairers, plus Emma and I, got up bright and early to see firsthand exactly what happens to dumped goods and to attempt to rescue a few items destined for landfill... all to be repaired as part of the Repair Workshops in July.
The staff at the East Kew Vinnies told us how the pile we were sorting through was about half the size it is usually. The rules for sorting out what goes in the tip truck and what gets kept for sale are pretty simple. If it’s wet or damaged in the slightest then it’s off to the tip and if it’s in an OK condition and dry then it goes in the maybe pile to be sorted later.
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| Old text books and damaged books get recycled |
Whilst it hadn’t rained over the weekend, it was cold and frosty with a lot of the cloths and books soaking up the early morning dew rendering them obsolete. The reason that the wet cloths can’t be used is because items are sold ‘as is’. Meaning they go directly onto hangers or into bails to be sorted and shipped overseas.
So you might want to wash your second hand items before donating next time!
Aside from the damage caused by the weather, many of the things ‘donated’ were clearly other people’s waste. Empty boxes, broken cups, single shoes and the countless handbags with broken straps resulted in more goods going in the skip than into the shop.
Whilst the East Kew Vinnies has a small repair workshops staffed by keen volunteers with skills, the sheer volume of things dumped week after week makes it very difficult for shops like this to sort through and repair broken items for sale.
We donate to charities to recycle and to assist them in financing their important social work. But with the landfill and skip costs being anywhere up to $400 a week, we really need to find ways of reducing the amount of waste getting dumped on charities. This comes down to higher quality products that break less and alternative recycling and repair facilities. According to some reports dumping costs charities a staggering 1 million dollars a year.
In a bid to kerb the weekend pile of waste outside shops, charities have even started to remove their donation bins (ref).
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| Repairer Lizzy sorting through the pile |
When asked why this happens, one of the crew said people are either lazy or don’t want to have to pay to take it to the tip. “
It costs about $17 to drop a mattress off at the tip, and we get heaps of them here that we can’t use so we have to pay for that.”
Charities are not ‘alternative’ waste collectors, so think about what you are donating next time and make sure that you drop off you items when the store is open so they can assess if they are useful.
There is a much larger question that needs to be addressed in this, that is the alleviation of guilt that we feel when we ‘donate’ and the excuses that having such services allow us to make about what we are consuming. It’s irresponsible to donate things that are not up to scratch and frustrating to now know just how much ends up in landfill – not through the fault of the charities who are trying their hardest to sort through everything – but through the laziness or us. Buying, breaking and ‘donating’ more and more things.
Some of the items that had to go straight into the bin included:
- Text books and encyclopaedias
- Wet or damaged books
- Crockery or glass where with the slightest chip in it (safety)
- Baby items such as car seats (as they don’t know what the condition is)
- Soiled or wet cloths (remember they go straight onto the hangers without being washed so they have to be in good order)
- Board games with pieces missing or small parts that could be a choking hazard
- Single shoes
I have just completed a morning’s work sorting bric a brac items for one of these stores locally. The items I was sorting were the things that were put in the second chance pile, after the initial sorting from the street bins, that you described. I was upset to find that so many items retrieved through the second 'sort' were dumped anyway, and, no, you couldn't retrieve anything from the bin/refuse pile due to 'policies in place'! I watched helplessly as vintage items were tossed carelessly for "no-one would want them". The land-fill pile grew and grew as did my distress, as most things that were on the refuse pile were the very things that I would want to buy if I were a customer, while those kept and priced for the shop were the very things that are so cheap and commonplace to begin with. How can a mass-produced pink vinyl bag take precedence over a beautiful vintage leather handbag which has the misfortune to have a 2mm rub mark on a bottom corner? I offered to dab the mark with my trusty indelible artline pen and was told “we do not do that!”, even copping a smack on my hand for the attempt. How can a paperback romance novel take precedence over an original hardcover 1930’s copy of 'What Katy Did' that happens to have someones name on the inside face page? A cheap mirror is chosen over a vintage embroidered vanity-set hairbrush. And beautiful old vanity-cases and suitcases are tossed for a bit of rust on the hinges. A two-buck shop print is chosen over an original framed 1940s English watercolour painting of a donkey in a Barcelona Street, that happens to have mould on the mount. I very nearly walked away in disgust as my protests got me nowhere and I was close to tears. After a long discussion with the manager she has agreed there may be room for a change but she is skeptical and says they don't have the time to be so particular. I have offered my own time but I understand that, for now at least, they see me as trouble that they don't need and they probably won't have me back. But I am going to try to change this, I am going to do my best.
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