Charities get no jingle from junk
The next time you leave a box of old clothes, dishes and other unwanted items for a charity on your doorstep, think again: Would I give these items to a friend? Are they safe and clean enough for someone’s child to use?
While area charities appreciate donations, many also end up paying thousands of dollars getting rid of other people’s junk.
After all, no one wants to buy stained linens or a torn-up shirt, even at thrift-store prices. And what use is a TV or a clock radio if it doesn’t work?
“If it’s not something I wouldn’t give to someone I care about, I wouldn’t leave it out there,” said Lou Morlan, supervisor at Spokane’s Salvation Army Bargain Center.
It costs Salvation Army about $800 to empty the large red trash bin outside its thrift store, Morlan said. Depending on the amount of unusable stuff that comes in, the bin gets filled every two weeks. That’s a cost of about $20,000 annually – money that could go to the Salvation Army’s family shelter and other programs. “Sometimes, people don’t want to pay money to take things to the dump, so we end up footing the bill,” Morlan said.
Larger organizations have even bigger refuse costs, which diminish services for the less fortunate in Spokane.
Every year, Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest receives 4 million pounds of goods from 300,000 donors in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Only 60 percent, however, can actually be sold again at its 12 retail stores.
While the nonprofit does its best to recycle every piece of cardboard, metal and other items, it still has to spend about $400,000 getting rid of garbage.
“We’re grateful for all the donations, but it also helps when people can be cognizant of the types of items we can use,” said Clark Brekke, vice president of Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest. “We’re trying to educate our generous donors about what we can accept.”
On a recent morning, heaps of garbage could be found amid the mounds of toys, stacks of books, piles of clothing and other items that covered the processing warehouse behind Goodwill Industries’ downtown store. All this junk – burnt cooking pans, broken ski poles, faded T-shirts and other useless stuff – were either dumped at one of the nonprofit’s 24 drop-off sites or tucked inside boxes and bags left on people’s doorstep for pickup.
To cut down on waste and to make money for its many programs, Goodwill sells the ripped and stained clothes to wholesale vendors who often ship the items to Third World countries. The nonprofit – which serves more than 3,000 needy people every year through job training and other services – also has a recycling program that generates revenue.
When unusable items enter the processing area, employees often take them apart. So instead of throwing out a moldy, external-frame backpack, workers remove its aluminum frame and add it to the pile of metals that on a recent morning included a rusty colander and pieces of a lawn chair.
“We try not to waste anything,” said Bill Croghan, who gathers and sorts all the sheet metal and aluminum for recyling.
In 2004, Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest recycled 2,823 tons of textiles and 333 tons of metal, according to Brekke. Without the recycling program, the organization would spend even more money on getting rid of garbage.
Besides contributing items in good condition, donors could do these charities a favor by ensuring that their donations work and have been cleaned. While Goodwill is able to do a few minor repairs and laundering, other charities including the Salvation Army Bargain Center don’t have the facilities to wash and dry clothes, let alone fix broken furniture and small appliances.
St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Coeur d’Alene has an in-house laundry, but due to limited resources, employees there can wash only smaller items such as gloves, hats and clothing that the agency gives to children in need. “We prefer to have everything laundered,” said Lynn Peterson, executive director of North Idaho’s St. Vincent de Paul, which provides transitional housing and other social services to more than 6,000 people. “We’re a starving nonprofit. We just don’t have a way to fix things, so we can use all the help we can get.”
Other charities echoed her plea.
The Arc of Spokane, an organization that has helped those with developmental disabilities for the past 60 years, receives about 450,000 pounds of merchandise each year, which they sell exclusively to Value Village. While only 75 percent of those items are deemed usable, the donations account for 19 percent of the nonprofit’s annual budget and ensure that The Arc’s community center remains open.
“These are things we’re trying to resell,” said Janet Emerick, manager of solicitations for The Arc of Spokane. “If it’s something that you wouldn’t give because it’s broken, we couldn’t use it either.”
The absolute last thing these charities need is more garbage – especially the stinky kind. While the vast majority of donors are very conscientious about the things they leave on their doorstep, some charities have reported finding dirty diapers, kitchen scraps, used cat litter and other trash.
“You’d be surprised,” said Morlan of the Salvation Army. “People actually leave their household garbage.”
Some might include the trash along with some usable items. Others leave it at night on the parking lot. Last year, over Memorial Day weekend, someone dumped all kinds of rubbish outside the Salvation Army’s office. By the time the staff returned to their office, others had pilfered through the offerings and left a mess that took hours to clean up.
Despite the cost and hassle of waste disposal, all the area nonprofits have accepted it as part of their mission to serve the needy. They realize that even though they explain their limitations to every donor who asks for a pickup, there are a few who won’t heed their request.
Every once in a while, someone will actually get mad if they decline to pick up a torn mattress or other stuff that is clearly headed for the trash, said Emerick of The Arc. “But for the most part, people have been good to us,” she said.