Hospice plea over dirty and broken shop donations
A care home has warned that donating dirty, broken and damaged goods to charity shops is costing the organization more than £1,000 each year.
Blythe House Hospice operates six stores in north Derbyshire, but many items left outside the stores when they are closed need to be thrown away, according to senior retail manager Marie Brown.
He said the problem had been exacerbated over the past few years by the cost of living crisis.
“This costs the charity money because we have to pay for our bins and we like to recycle as much as possible, so we have to pay fuel costs and wages for people to take the items to the tip,” he added.
Items donated but unsold included a dirty bottle sterilizer, broken plates, lime-covered kettles and moldy sunbeds.
Charity Retail Association urges people to drop off donations only in stores that are open [BBC]
Brown added that during bad weather after Christmas, staff came into stores to find sacks full of dirty, damp clothes.
He added that he was ‘extremely grateful’ for donations that could be sold, but that some people were ‘misled’ when bringing items.
“The best thing donors can do for us is to look at what they’re donating and ask themselves: Is it clean, is it undamaged, and would I buy it?” Brown said. added Brown, who said the cost of disposing of unsuitable items was more than £1,000 a year.
“If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, then we would love to have these items.”
He said people were hanging on to items longer before donating them to charities during the cost of living crisis, meaning the quality of goods had declined.
Dirty items donated to charities often need to be thrown away [BBC]
Hannah Weet, head of communications and social media at the Charity Retail Association, advised people to call a charity shop to check availability before making a large donation.
“The issue that has arisen is unfortunately a familiar one for many of our members in the UK,” Weet said.
“While British people are incredibly generous and donate in good faith, charity shops often have to deal with items that are broken, dirty or otherwise unsellable.
“The cost of disposing of these items is a significant burden. Every pound a charity spends on the disposal of commercial waste is a pound away from their core mission, such as providing hospice care, medical research or community support.”
Blythe House Hospice provides end of life care in Chapel-en-le-Frith and has charity shops in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Whaley Bridge, New Mills, Buxton, Bakewell and Matlock.
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