To be suspicious of this 'yard sale'?

[Oscalito]

Every week a couple near my local supermarket hold a yard sale in their front garden - loads of clothes, shoes etc. Full clothes racks, dozens of pairs of shoes etc. Opposite them is a Traid recycling bin. I don't have any evidence that they are nicking stuff from the bins, but I suspect they might be. It bothers me because a) people donate to charity when they could just sell the stuff themselves on Ebay and b) the money it raises goes to a good cause. But as I said, I don't have any evidence to accuse them. My DH says it's not my problem. Should I do anything?

I think you should go to the police and the papers STRAIGHTAWAY

[sarcastic face]

I was thinking the local council actually.... I just think it's really cheeky, but I suppose a lot of people wouldn't care, it seems a lot of people think it's OK to rip others off.

If you really feel strongly about this - take action.

Donate a load of stuff to that bin - really identifiable. Put a mark on the items somewhere.

Then attend the sales for a few weeks, see if any of the stuff turns up.

If it does. Wave it at them and tell them straight!

The key phrase here is "I don't have any evidence". If it bothers you that much the only way to collect evidence is to spy on them in which case you might find yourself on the wrong end of a harassment charge.....

HecateQueenOfWitches has a very good idea. Take photos before of the pile before you put it in the bin, then ring the police when you see it all turn up.

Hecate my DH suggested that... I think it might be a plan. I've also written to Traid to ask their advice; I'm sure they would have experience of this kind of thing with their bins. Maybe they just need to empty it more regularly as this couple could be helping themselves to stuff left outside the bin. I have also considered just asking them where they get it all from, but last time I went past I was too loaded up with shopping to breathe, let alone ask questions.

This goes on more than you realise.

evidence please

There are communities online that share info on how to get stuff. I know because I researched when I found out someone else was doing this. It would also appear it is perfectly legal for the most part. Its known as freganism.

sorry freeganism.

It's not legal to take clothes from recycling bins, it's not even legal to take something out of a skip.

And it does happen quite a lot (theft from clothes bins that is).

So YANBU I mean. Good idea about planting clothes then catching them in the act!

no its not legal to take from there but if other bins are unlocked its not classed as theft. Such as high st stores and supermarkets.

It is annoying (local man here replies to every freecycle ad wih sob stories and then car-boots up a storm) but I don't see how you could prove anything. Or if anything would be done if you could.

it depends what kind of recycling bin i'd say, if it's a bin for donating to charity shops then it is wrong to take from that but if it's industrial recycling then surely it's better that the stuff is reused at a small profit to somebody than it is recycled.

industrial recycling is almost always 'down-cycling' in that the finished product is less than the starting product and energy and water have been used in the process so re-use is always better than recyclign and recycling should only happen when all re-using is exhausted.

why are we in this country so against this kind of small-scale enterprenurship?

people in developing countries collect up bits of rubbish and sort them and re-sell whatever has a value, why not here?

i reckon if anybody can be bothered to collect stuff from freecycle and re-sell it then good for them, i haven't time or will to re-sell everything i no longer require and the stuff is going to a good home with somebody who needs it rather than landfill which is what i care about.

sorry, should have combined all these posts into one post but i have now looked up TRAID and see that they do re-sell stuff, if so then they should have tamper-proof recycling units. Our local one is oxfam and there's no way you could break into it... no way at all.. if you think the TRAID one is insecure (can you get into it?) then tell TRAID.

Fluffles - the man on freecycle I'm on about lies. That makes it wrong. The official freecycle stance is that anything to keep it out of landfill is OK but most people don't like to be lied to.

And small-scale entreprenuership (not even trying to spell that ) is not the same as stealing btw. The OP belives that the sellers take clothes from a charity bin, not from the landfill site. It doesn't matter if the clothes were donated for charity or for industrial recycling: someone paid to have that bin installed and emptied and someone else donated clothes. The couple taking the clothes and making a profit are not budding business moguls, they are thieving chancers.

If they did, obviously

I think the problem is greed. Most who do this dont work and refuse to do so becuase they can get what they want for free.

It is theft, DH is a police offer and has done people for nicking clothes from outside charity shops, criminals can be quite organsed about it.

A chatette from a polic office might be enough to put them off. TRAID ought to have protected their bin, but it might not be wort the extra cost to them.

poppymouse what about other shops? Non charity ones I mean. Im not disagreeing with you just wanted to know as the person I know has been told by police there is nothing they can do.

Yes this is a Traid bin. I'm not against people taking things from skips, freeganism etc. But this is a stall that runs every Saturday directly opposite a Traid recycling bin. And looking at the stuff, it just looks like charity donations - shoes of all different sizes etc, kids clothes, coats etc. I have written to Traid so maybe they'll collect more regularly or check the security of the bin. I've seen people scavenging from charity bins before, especially on weekends when lots of people have had clear-outs and the bins are full so people just leave donations on the street, and this looks like a similar situation that's suddenly become a small enterprise! And I'm not against that either, but if you donate to charity these days it's usually because you want it to go to a good cause, otherwise you'd just flog it on Ebay yourself.

do the people have very close set eyes, or very bumpy heads?

I mean, they MUST be stealing, there is absolutely NO other explanation

Apart from sarcasm (which was boring the first time) do you have anything helpful to add PedlarsSpanner?