If it's hot you don't get the money!

[Kiya]

I'd rather it be turned into Roy's bar , its too cold in winter beside my bench, I'd be blown away

[LovelyLadyLux]

@ Jayway - used to be like that here too. When I had the chickens they got ALL kitchen scraps - BEST Solution going.

Used to be able to put anything out the garbage guys could lift and it was all taken to the public dump. NOW OMG - they're recycling everything AD NAUSEUM!

[Scottishtourist]

As this topic has digressed onto recycling,can I just ask for others views on clothes recycling?
Here,we have a multitude of ways now for getting rid of old,unwanted,outgrown,outworn clothes!
We have "charity"shops.We have shops who buy these clothes for 50p per kilo.We have polythene bags left at our front doors from (dubious!)organisations.We have large recycling bins situated in various places in the town.The list is endless!
When I was younger...clothes were "handed down."
There was always someone in the family who could make use of them,and they were never discarded in any way.
When worn out,they were used for dusters,etc,and my other granny (Lithuanian)used to make the most beautiful "rag rugs"from them.
On a more frivolous vein,I once bought half a dozen bras from a well known discount store(Primark)The one I tried on fitted(so I thought)so I just loaded up basket with a few more in same size.BIG mistake!
Couldn't take them back...much too embarrassing...so local charity shop was running appeal for "Bras for Africa."
I take solace in thought that there may be a few women now in Africa wearing lovely black/white/skintone bras,perfectly complimented by matching briefs!!!!
Yes,I had to hand them in too(all brand new and unworn)cos I had no bras to match them!!!

[Grandad]

Interesting you raise that subject ST. My wife was convinced that we had at least one charity sack through the door every week. Just to see what we DO actually get I started recording them in January.

So far we have had 12, 2 per month. They were from:
Shelter, 3 so far; NSPCC, 3 so far; British Heart Foudation, 2 so far; The Childrens Society; MacMillan Cancer; Lifeboats; Intersecond Ltd, agent for Azzara charity registered in Lithuania(yer, I bet it is )

Does any one really have cast of clothes etcetera sufficient to justify bag collection every two weeks, that's as frequent as the bin men.

And we have heard of cases where unscrupulous outfits who get to know about genuine collectors, go round early to take the bags and sell the contents to third world countries for personal gain...nothing charitable.

Best option if you have good quality items that you no longer require, take them direct to charity shops...

[LovelyLadyLux]

In the USA there were several organizations that would bring bags to your house and leave them with a note as to when they'd be back to collect the clothes. This was only a couple times per year - HOWEVER - the recycling of clothing does seem to be big business in that there are mega charity and consignment shops always on the lookout for your used (and new if you want to give it to them) clothes.

Consignment shops take your clothes and sell them again and you get a percentage of whatever they sell them for. I think if you're into Brand Names and Labels this might work fairly well for you.

All the different thrift shops take your clothes and sell them sometimes charging like the item is new.

Personally I donate all my clothes to Hospital Thrift Shops. There was one in the USA I took all my stuff to and there is one here. I'm particularly fond of the Hospital Thrift Shop here. It is run by a host of little old ladies (and I DO mean Little Old). All their time is donated and they sell everything they get really cheap. At any given time they can tell you what they are working to buy for our local hospital and at the end of January (about) they will post a notice as to how much money they actually collected. Last year this little group and it is also a small store collected $232,000+ which is a pretty decent haul for old clothes. I do have to state they do re-sell everything that is donated. If I buy one more skein of wool from them!!!

I love Thrift Shops - well some of them - and have made many a purchase of sweaters, slacks and blouses. Some of the BEST purchases I ever got were Business Suits. I had to wear business suits and sometimes you could find absolutely gorgeous outfits in Thrift Stores. When I retired I donated ALL my business suits so anybody who has to present professionally for court could have gotten a real steal of a deal

[Horus]

As Grandad has said a lot of these are dubious collectors who are jumping on the charity bandwaggon. Again going a little off topic, we now seem to be inundated with 'gypos' collecting scrap! we must get at least one per day and sometimes more that cruise up the street and pounce on anything that looks to be left out for them. Of course in true Gypo style they stretch this good will to the limit and I know of one guy who had to chase after them to get his kids bikes back and another who found his side gate being carted off after he removed it for re-painting Of course they have the stock reply that "dey taut it was it was for scrap", thieving ********

[LovelyLadyLux]

@H - We don't have that problem here yet although leaving anything curbside will disappear in record time. i.e. the newborn baby bouncey seat the granddaughter has outgrown was put out yesterday with a 'free' paper on it and was probably gone by the time I reached the front door.

With our actual City Guys or City Crew they recycle ad nauseum but do not and will not ever pick up large items that the average homeowner has a devil of a time getting rid of. Any large broken appliances, pieces of metal - anything large becomes the home owners problem. We used to have a public dump where things were put into specified piles and when enough was had the city sold it, scraped it - whatever is done to get rid of big pieces of metal. Unfortunately these dumps also collected garbage garbage as in food waste which attracted bears. Once a bear became a garbage bear nutritionally they went down, lost their fear of getting close to people, typically looked awful and if the garbage pickings were insufficient they'd do the few miles walk into town and start foraging backyards. This lead to the shut down of dumps because people couldn't stand the thought of BusterBear having to be trapped and relocated (only to return) to the wilds. The side effect of this was also the closing of public dumps and now trying to get rid of anything big and unwanted is extremely problematic.

[Ruby Slippers]

The thing that drives me absolutely bananas regarding charity are the amount of people at my front door who DON'T want a donation! Oh no! They want all my bank details and me to sign for a direct debit! They get short shrift from me!

[Horus]

Too true RS, its become big bussiness for some collecting organisations.