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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed that the charity shop at the end of our road has started locking their bin?

30 replies

SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:11

I live a few doors down from a charity shop, and have often seen people rummaging in their bin. I used to (vaguely) think, "Oh poor things...good luck to them," until a few months ago when I happened to see a lot of perfectly good stuff in the bin.

I asked one of the charity shop staff about it and they said I was welcome to take anything I wanted, so I did. I came away with some great toys - perfect working order, not grubby or in any way broken, and with working batteries (apart from a pair of walkie talkies which someone had actually gone to the trouble of taping together and labelling which one needed a new battery). My DCs were thrilled and have had a lot of play time with these things.

I now feel obliged to have a peek in the bin every now and then, and more often than not there are perfectly good things just being thrown away Sad. If it's something I know we will use, I'll usually take it.

Anyway while I was having a look today, one of the staff came out to lock the bin! I explained that I was going to take some of the children's books and videos that were going to otherwise be carted off to landfill, and he said that the neighbours had been complaing about people rifling through the bins and that Environmental Health were "on their case".

I asked him if he thought it was right that perfectly good donated items were going to waste, and asked if they could maybe arrange for the stuff to be taken to a refuge, or at least have some sort of formal system in which people are invited to take items from a designated box for free (NB the shop keeps a lot of its stock on the pavement, so it's not as if this would "change the character of the street" in anyway). He was v dismissive and brushed me off.

So, what can be done about this?? I just think it's SO WRONG that good quality donated items which are in excellent condition are being sent to landfill. It's all the more baffling whern they are trying to sell boxes of tatty toys (naked Barbies with chopped off hair anyone?)

I have donated to this shop in the past, but there's no way I will any more. I would be so pissed off to think that my donated stuff was being binned when I know I could give it away to appreciative friends and family.

OP posts:
TheMonster · 12/04/2011 16:13

I've heard of charity shops throwing stuff away too, perfectly good things. It's such a shame.

TheMonster · 12/04/2011 16:13

COuld you offer to take it all and freecycle it?

TennisFan · 12/04/2011 16:15

When I was in NZ recently, I noticed that outside some of their charity shops they had big baskets/bins with FREE stuff.
So during the day, things which they couldnt sell, they could at least offer free, it seemed a great idea to me at the time.

I presume when the shop was closed, the baskets/bins were brought inside.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:17

BoE - he wouldn't let me even look in the bin anymore.

TF - yes, that's exactly what they should do.

OP posts:
Rosa · 12/04/2011 16:17

If its a chain can you not contact the HQ and complain - I agree there would be people very grateful for toys and working items....I think its disgusting ....Maybe somebody with behind the scenes chartity shop knowledge can explain why !

TheMonster · 12/04/2011 16:17

I bet if it was put in a basket and labelled 10pence each they would soon go!

mollymole · 12/04/2011 16:18

the charity shop should be sending their books to be recycled - videos don't sell and are often just dumped - as far as i know there is some sort of licence problem with batteries and this could be why battery toys are being scrapped - can't see why a 'you can take these away for free box ' if you have BOUGHT something from the shop - if they are given away without a purchase then the charity will have had to sort them but had no revenue.
i worked in a charity shop for 12 years though and was constantly amazed at what some of the other sorters considered 'saleable' or 'scrap'

ExitPursuedByALamb · 12/04/2011 16:18

Landfill - Cripes - I hope none of the stuff I give to charity shops goes into landfill. Glad I never sent the jumpers my late mother knitted for DD when she was little.

Seems so wrong if the stuff is useable.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:21

mollymole - they sell other stuff with batteries, and they do still sell videos. Surely there would be no further "sorting them out" to do if they gave them away for free? i.e. they could be put in a box outside the shop just as easily as they put tem in the bin.

OP posts:
NorbertDentressangle · 12/04/2011 16:23

I'm always amazed when charities bin clothing in particular because damaged/marked stuff can be sold on as rag by the weight but I guess that unless they have the storage space this might not always be possible.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:23

I'm sure plenty of my stuff has been binned. I've only spotted on or two of my dozens of donated items. And I've never seen any of my donated clothes for sale, even though I've clearly bagged up "good quality saleable clothes" and "rags".

OP posts:
Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:25

To be fair, they do send "unsaleable" clothes to the rag collectors rather than bin them.

OP posts:
iskra · 12/04/2011 16:27

They can't sell toys any more I think.

darleneconnor · 12/04/2011 16:27

Name and shame please!

LilQueenie · 12/04/2011 16:27

Well I dont agree with bin raking. Esepcially those who then sell on unsafe and dirty items they find there. However a lot of charity shops are lazy and chuck stuff because they just cant be bothered to sort it all out. They should be more responsible.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:28

It's a "Bethany" shop in Edinburgh.

OP posts:
Minda · 12/04/2011 16:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nijinsky · 12/04/2011 16:30

I think its true that they will have been threatened by Environmental Health along the lines of having to provide a license for anyone disposing of their waste and risk being fined if they do not. I think this is more due to Environmental Health than the charity shop's policies.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 16:31

I've never seen any mess / bin damage in the two years I've lived here. Apart from when the charity shop bin is full to over-flowing (at which point "bin rakers" are surely doing everyone a favour?!).

OP posts:
Ryoko · 12/04/2011 16:48

Are you sure they are being sent to a landfil? one of the charity shops I used to work in had rag and bone men take the stuff and I live near a processing plant that regularly has massive bins outside with cloth, paper/books and plastics (including toys) in there some of which has charity names on them like YMCA etc.

QueenOfFloppingEars · 12/04/2011 16:51

Was it just a normal skip-type wheely bin?

DP has a universal key for those sort of bins for exactly this reason Grin

Funny, I just posted on another thread about stuff being thrown away from charity shops that was perfectly usable and in fact rather expensive.

Original poster
SpawnChorus · 12/04/2011 17:09

Definitely going to landfill...I've seen the bin men chuck it in with the regular household waste from this street.

Queen - where do you get universal keys??

OP posts:
charleneanne · 12/04/2011 19:36

rummaging in bins tramps

lololizzy · 12/04/2011 19:39

i manage a charity shop and we do have to put faulty electric items etc in the bin. and really filthy stuff. We are not allowed to sell any electricals,so the good stuff i take to another charity shop. We get our bins regularly rifled through and turn a blind eye, probably not a safe idea though..as i said, broken electrics..also mould ridden old clothing etc

lololizzy · 12/04/2011 19:41

i do agree with Minda though, horrible clearing up the mess from tipped up bins especially when you have a busy day ahead of you.
However we never bin books, the rag man always takes them and pays us for them.
Unfortunately other charity shops do often bin them.
Also all cuddly toys without a CE label have to be binned..even new ones. :-((( i do rescue a lot though!