Charity shop waste

[Delly9]

A few weeks ago my partner donated his daughter’s dolls house to a local independent charity shop. They have 1 shop. They said they are unique because they never throw anything away which we thought was good.

A few days later on their Facebook page they posted asking if anyone knows of someone with a waste licence of stuff to get rid of which they posted a photo. There was a massive pile of bags of clothes. There were children’s books which there was nothing wrong with them as you could see. Then we saw my partner’s dolls house and something else he donated.

We were upset because that dolls house was looked after and if we had known they were going to just throw it away we would have put online for free collection. That could have gone to a good home to a family who don’t have much money. Even if someone had it for free to sell on it wouldn’t be landfilled. We only donated to the charity because they said they are local and don’t throw things out and want toys to sell to children in the local community. They had the cheek to moan about the charity shop down the road for throwing things out.

I don’t get why people lie or society promotes sustainability if this happens. So disappointed they lied to us.

I'd go in and ask

Go in and ask for it back saying they misrepresented their ethos.

That's awful! Take it back.

That's awful. Really upsetting.
And I wonder what price they were asking for the doll's house that no one wanted to buy it because as I understand it such items are in high demand.
Definitely go in and ask for it back..

Yes, take it back and offer free on Marketplace or Freecycle, it’ll be snapped up.

If you can get it back then do.
I could understand slightly if it had been there for 6 months and not sold.
What is the charity they represent? I would put a complaint in to whoever runs the charity.

That’s awful, I really hate waste.

I wish we could have gone back and got it but they put on their post the stuff has been taken away now. We will never donate to them again and give to someone who will appreciate it.

I would be fuming at that and i would be contacting their head office and possibly the shop manager , they had the chance to refuse when you offered the dolls house and you could have then found another home for it.
What a waste and this must be the tip of an iceberg , it's the shop staff definition of whats 'worthy' to go on sale in their shop , i dread to think of the good stuff that ends up chucked.
Your post has put me off donating.

This is why I always give usable things away on Facebook marketplace rather than to charity shops you just can't guarantee they won't bin them. The people who've collected things from me are always so grateful it's actually been really rewarding and lovely.

Charity shops are often overpriced and have apparently abandoned their secondary purpose as cheap sources of secondhand items in local communities so that coupled with the huge amounts of usable donations they throw away (take a look in their bins if you get the chance, you'll be shocked) means that in most cases I no longer feel they align with my values.

What condition was it in? What condition were the books in? You cannot sell items with damage - 80% of donations are simply not fit for resale (think missing jigsaw pieces, stains or holes in clothing, missing parts of toy sets and torn pages in books. Despite selling kids books at 49p people will only buy them is pristine!

last week i threw away donations including chipped crockery, scratched vinyl, shirts with sweat marks and children’s clothing covered in food stains

We know what we can actually sell and there’s a mismatch with what people think is fit to be sold, demonstrated here so often. Rent isn’t free, electricity isn’t free, heating oil isn’t free and getting rid of waste isn’t free either,

That's very bad of them if they claim not to throw away.

I will say - and this isn't necessarily about your dolls' house - that people massively overestimate what is suitable for selling and even giving away. Children's books are a good example, last time I had some (nice) ones to get rid of the charity shops told me they wouldn't take them as no one buys, and I couldn't even get any takers on Freecycle.

My local charity shops have all stopped taking toys and children's books now.

I can’t see how they can say that they never throw anything away. Surely they sometimes end up with unusable donations.

That's bad. We donated the dcs dolls house to a charity shop and they sold it for £40 pretty quickly.
These things definitely sell.

I would get it back and ask why they dispose of things when they said won’t dispose of things.

Are you sure they didn’t just use a photo of things they had in and these aren’t the items they want to dispose of?

Are you sure they said they never throw stuff away? I would be amazed if any charity shop would claim that, because it's inevitable that they will receive a load of tat that they can't possibly sell and they have little choice but to throw it away.

Did you go in and ask!

How bizarre being challenged on facts.

I said in my post that the charity shop told me they NEVER throw anything away and people are questioning if they said that. That’s what was unusual about a charity shop and stood out to us.

Also the dolls house was in excellent condition. We wouldn’t donate tat or damaged items because we know about disposal costs impacts charity shops.

The photo was shown and the post said we are looking for a waste management company to dispose of these items in the photo.

In future we will be avoiding donating to charity shops.

But why did you think it was good that the charity claimed it never threw stuff away? Surely if it receives donations of stuff that is worn out and smelly - which is what happens regularly - you would want them to throw it away?

I am not doubting that someone at the charity said they never throw things away but I don’t believe what they said was true. I’d imagine the person made a mistake. There is no way a charity shop would advertise that they never throw things away.

What type of dolls house was it? Did it have any safety marks on it?

Go and ask for it back

but it's quite common for charity shops to have signs up saying they can't take any more donations. I imagine they often throw things out.

I would imagine staff are instructed to say that they don't.

I agree the dishonesty is ridiculous and people would maybe be more aware if there was more honesty about the amount of waste going on. Then again, judging by the success of places like Shein, maybe not.

As a volunteer - I agree with that. I don't believe it's true either.

I'd say that - as a generous estimate - about 25% of what we are given is suitable for sale. What are we supposed to do with chipped mugs, pans with food encrusted on them, headless dolls or ripped and stained clothing?

Now when I used to volunteer at Oxfam (I am now with another charity), they used to claim that hardly anything went to landfill. But that is a VERY different matter from selling everything. We had textile recycling, a company who collected books/paper, another company which took anything metal, one of my fellow volunteers would take odd plates/mugs for a homeless charity, and there was always the standard council recycling for glass, tins, paper and cardboard.

But there is still always going to be stuff which is just rubbish and needs to be chucked away.

Couldn’t agree more. In the shop I volunteer in the amount of smelly, dirty, ripped, cat-hair-covered stuff is astonishing and that’s not even mentioning the random bric-a-brac that is quite obviously not in a saleable condition. It’s unrealistic for any shop to say they never throw things away, storage space is not unlimited. And regular changes on the shop floor is what encourages customers in.