One person's junk is.....another person's junk

Some news from the Palm Beach Post.

"A lot of people try to clean out their junk and give it to you. If we don't have good stuff to sell, then we can't keep our (thrift) stores open," said Tima Fender, founder of the Association for Abused Woman and Children Inc. in West Palm Beach.

Too often, not-for-profit organizations become dumping grounds for people's food-stained clothing, three-legged table or broken toaster. In some instances, even false teeth, artificial limbs, guns, and the occasional unwanted pet have landed on their doorstep.

Not only do they have to pay people to sort through the stuff, they have to pay trash companies to haul it away.

For example, last year, Gulfstream Goodwill in West Palm Beach spent more than $460,000 to get rid of junk.

Goodwill empties three trash bins the size of a 24-foot truck three times a week, and that's after selling some of the unusable clothing as rags to cleaning companies or as salvage, which then ends up being baled and sent to warehouses in Miami where it's processed and resold to Third World countries, said Sonia Cintron, district manager of donation services.

The problem becomes more pronounced toward the end of the year, when people are looking for tax write-offs, and in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

"The easiest thing to part with is clothing, but it's about the last thing people affected by a disaster need," said Greg Rydman, business administrator for the Salvation Army in West Palm Beach.

And, while donors may assume that their designer jeans with paint on them might be appreciated by someone less fortunate, "Just because someone doesn't have the financial means I may have doesn't mean they want to buy something if it's ripped or stained," said Judy Hancock, director of retail sales for Gulfstream Goodwill.

Yes I believe it. My wife works for our Catholic church and for years they had a St. Vincent DePaul dropoff shed. Alot of junk or even garbage would be place in there. Half eaten food, and old tires would you believe?

Before donating anything ask yourself- "If I can't use it, can someone else reasonbably use it?" If not, it is garbage.

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