charity shop waste

[oldhippy]

I have actively seen a local shop,AGE U.K. place in their commercial bins many perfectly good and saleable items.Requests to managers -told to mind own biz..etc...This has been going on for 9 years -i pass the shop 3 times a week & whenever i can look in the bins. E-mail to the area manager only brings denials,repeats of there "recycling policy"And warnings about private property-the bins are in an alley next to the shop.I have seen collectable L.P.s,new household items in original packaging,lots of toys,unbroken furniture ,kitchenwear& much more.The shop is well supported by the public and they/we give in good faith that our donations get sold for charity benefit. I think this utterly wrong. The commercial bins they use go straight to the land fill site just outside the town.I have heard similar things happening in other charity shops elsewhere.What do Mumsnet think?

I was a store manager at Barnardos, the amount of stock that is sent to landfill is a disgrace, hence me leaving after 3 months! You'd be shocked to know that all your high street charity shops only care about hitting targets and making money! Never will I ever work for a charity shop again.

One of our local ones pours bleach over anything they discard to make it unusable/unsellable for anyone else. If it's genuinely rubbish then no one will want it...so why destroy it?

The problem is the shops need to have new stock out regularly to be able to attract customers in. They don’t have endless storage and so will have to dispose of items if they haven’t sold after a certain period of time. They should however dispose of them ethically and recycle wherever possible.

yes, you are right about storage& new stock in these shops-but AGE UK is a nationwide org. and their vans are deilvering new stock to them every few weeks or so,.so why cannot they use these to rotate stock to larger shopsI have suggested that the cds,lps and books etc could go to a specialist Oxfam shop,2 mins walk away-shop manager does not want to know.

thanks for responding to my thread-i would like to hear from anyone who has first hand experience of this apalling waste -interesting that this is going on as some in the fashion industry& the lifestyle media are banging on about very cheap throwaway clothes,& how bad it is for the environment etc ect.....I am thinking about contacting the producers of channel 4 ,s Dispathes programme .

A lot of 'chains' haul unsold stock from area to area in the hope it will eventually sell, but they can't afford to keep doing this indefinitely.

Wow that’s shocking! I regularly donate my kids outgrown clothes and wondered why I never see them in the shop. I am trying to buy less and giving out grown clothes to nursery as spares

they have to dispose of things that don't sell because they can't store it anywhere

I have worked for a charity and saw the worst money wastage there than anywhere else so I'm under no illusions about how charities deal with resources, but in the case of the charity shops, they are inundated with stuff....because the world is inundated with stuff. The only way to stop it is to stop buying new stuff unless it's essential.

Don't get me started on overpopulation.
but don't blame the individual shops. I live in a rough area and every year after xmas they have signs up saying "please don't leave things on our doorstep" but still arrive to bin bags overflowing with plastic tat and novelty pyjamas.