Drop-off boxes not equally charitable

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Chicago Tribune:

The process of donating used clothing used to be pretty straightforward, with most of it going to big charities like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul.

In recent years, however, clothing donation has become more confusing — even as it's grown more convenient — as a wide array of colorful collection boxes has sprouted up in parking lots all over the nation.


Though the drop-off boxes may look similar at first glance, only some are operated by charities. Other boxes are placed by commercial companies that may — or may not — donate some money to charity. And some of the charities involved don't meet the baseline standards of the Better Business Bureau or the Chicago-based American Institute of Philanthropy.

During a day's drive around the Chicago area, the Tribune spotted about 10 types of boxes that ran the gamut from collecting the clothes almost entirely to benefit charity (Salvation Army) to collecting the clothes purely for profit (USAgain).

"In the last 15 years or so the landscape has changed," said Cheryl Lightholder of Goodwill Industries of Metropolitan Chicago, which phased out collection boxes here years ago. "These days you're seeing a lot more of those clothing donation boxes that are typically run by for-profit companies with really no connections to charity, while some might donate a small portion of their profits to charities."

Lightholder said her charity prefers to get clothing at its collection centers and in resale shops to ensure the items don't get damaged or rained on before they are sorted. This also frees up the group, she says, to spend its money on programs rather than trucks and gas for clothing collection.

But the Salvation Army still keeps about 75 collection boxes around Chicago in addition to manned collection centers and trucks for home pickups.

By government estimates, Americans throw 85 percent of their unwanted textiles in the trash each year. That may be, in part, because of a widespread perception that charities want only those items that can be resold in their thrift shops. While these are the most valuable donations, other castoffs can still make millions for charities on the secondary materials market, which includes selling used clothes in developing countries and recycling them for industrial uses.

So the Salvation Army's Maj. Mark Anderson stresses that he doesn't mind when people donate ripped jeans, stained shirts and coats with broken zippers.

"We want to receive any and all articles because, if we can't sell it in one of our stores, then we can sell it to what they call the 'rag market,'" Anderson said. "They can repurpose those textiles for anything from wiping rags or materials for new textiles to even as an additive to asphalt. (That revenue) is a big deal for us."

One of the oldest trades in the world, textile recycling today represents a nearly $1 billion business, according to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles association (SMART), an industry trade group. Eric Stubin, president and CEO of Trans-America Textile Recycling Inc. in the New York City area, said many businesses work closely with charities to recycle clothes that can't be sold in domestic thrift stores. According to Stubin, used textiles unfit for resale in the U.S. can fetch up to 35 cents a pound.