Charities urge people to stop donating broken and low-quality items as it costs them time and money

12 comments

1. If I had the time to sort through everything and pull out only the good items, I’d sell them on eBay myself. The whole point of donating is that the charity handles the sorting for you, and in return, they get to keep and sell whatever’s worth something

2. Getting rid of stuff is difficult. I cleared a house recently over a year did approx 20 trips the tip, gave free stuff away online, sold stuff via marketplace, filled the bin countless times, took masses of good stuff to charity shops, recycled as much as I could and still had to fill a massive skip to the top with rubbish and some items which could have been used by someone.

3. Maybe charity shops should stop selling things for more than they cost new, and they’d be able to shift their backlog (looking at you Sue Ryder, and your weird insistence on trying to sell PC peripherals designed to work with Windows 3.1 for more than you charge for actual modern tech)

4. Guessing people leave the bags outside so they cannot be turned away when they inspect them when they come in.

5. What one thinks is a low quality a giver might not and givers can be deterred from giving if they’re told what they found value is is crap

   But yeah charities are being charged business rates to recycle unwanted stuff for us to offer the charity we attend to take a few bags of unwanted off their hands as invariably our next stop is the recycling centre where we as council tax payers are free to recycle the waste we bring.

6. Turns out beggars can be choosers.

7. I volunteer in a charity shop. The amount of straight up useless shit we get donated on a daily basis is mind blowing. Old ripped / water damaged / bent books. Children’s toys literally taped together / covered in stains / not working properly even with fresh batteries that we have to pay for. Loose wooden blocks, clearly intended for a toy but obviously useless without the full set. Puzzles and board games with literally at least half the pieces missing. Entire bags of unsellable junk where literally nothing is useable. We’ve even gotten some inappropriate “adult” items too, i have no idea why people would think we can sell that.

   It’s absolutely disgusting how people treat charity shops as a free rubbish tip.

8. Hang on a second this article is about the Channel Islands, so it’s not technically UK news (they’re crown dependencies)

9. Ok, you can get a *tiny* amount of money for ruined clothing by selling it for weight. It’s only really worth it if you are donating it as it’s own bag though, and discuss it with the shop first, same with damaged books. Both of these at least apply for a few shops in Scotland

   They really aren’t your Bins though, you should take care of your own waste

10. I guess it’s the price you pay for using other people’s generosity to make money. How else do you get to sell the 2005 epsom printer for more than a brand new model.

11. You should be thankful any one gives you anything. The whole idea of donating is that the shop sorts the items. And keeps them to sell. If i sorted through them, Then i could sell them myself.

12. It’s because people are just too lazy to take their shit to the tip. Happens on my road all the time. I’ve lost count of the number of middle class fly tipping episodes on my street. No I don’t want that crap book that’s now completely soggy because it’s been rained on all night. No I don’t want your broken clothes horse, I can buy a new working one for less than £20

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