Saturday, January 28, 2012

Clothing drop boxes

I was very surprised and disappointed to hear that some city councillors are considering banning used clothing drop boxes.

I like them. They're convenient for me. Someone who wants my unwanted stuff is giving me a convenient location to drop it off at my leisure. They say some of the boxes aren't for charity, but that doesn't negate their convenience. They also say some of them don't give the clothes to the needy, instead selling them to recyclers to use to make recycled textiles. That doesn't bother me either, because it means I can put things like holey old underwear and stained t-shirts and odd socks in the box instead of throwing them out.

All the problems listed in the article seem to be that existing laws and regulations aren't getting enforced. There are already rules about who can and can't operate them. There are already rules against putting big boxes on other people's property without their permission. To ban the boxes because existing rules aren't getting enforced would be to fall into this trap.

In the meantime, there's a very simple first step to solving this problem that they could have taken in that very news article: name the two organizations who are actually licenced to run clothing drop boxes. Every article I've seen on the subject says there are two legit and licenced organizations, none of them name them. Naming them would cost nothing, take up only a few minutes of time, and allow us to make informed choices about where we drop off our old clothes. The news media could even do this themselves without having to wait for city council to act.

3 comments:

laura k said...

I don't know why the stories don't name the companies - I'm guessing because that information wasn't made public, so the media doesn't know. But... I think the two licensed companies refers to *for-profit* companies that can legitimately have dropboxes.

Charities are different, and there are more than two of those. At leats that's what the articles seem to imply.

impudent strumpet said...

Some of the media coverage suggested that the two registered organizations were charities, some suggested that they were for-profit. It wasn't entirely consistent. In any case, just tell us what they are and we'll act accordingly!

laura k said...

In any case, just tell us what they are and we'll act accordingly!

Right. I'm amazed at how big a story this has become.