Charity clothes collection bags - how to stop them

Sat 11 Dec 2010, 22:13

Isn't the Council now collecting textiles? If this is so, where are they going to? Cue Christine!

Sat 11 Dec 2010, 18:15

I'm under the impression that, of all the bags we get pushed through our doors, the ones from Shaw Trust are actually legit. Am I wrong?

Sat 4 Dec 2010, 20:27

If it is of any interest to you, the primary school arranged for a company to come and collect from the school in March this year. The unwanted clothes and textiles found a new purpose in life, therefore reducing landfill, plus the school benefited finacially as we were paid per kilo for the amount we collected. We are planning another collection in March 2011, I will post details nearer the time.

Sat 4 Dec 2010, 14:13

Great to know I'm not alone. These are all great ideas, and was hoping that someone might suggest what Christine is researching - whether you can join a preference service like for junk mail. Sadly, looks like such a think does not yet exist...thanks all!

Sat 4 Dec 2010, 13:45

Look on the bright side Caroline: I've not bought binliners for several years as a result of these free ones dropping through my letterbox every few days!

Serously though, I agree that they are a menace and yet one more tiny annoyance knawing away at one's quality of life. These clothing collections are often a scam, as revealed on Watchdog a while back. Sadly though, Charlbury is a very affluent place and as someone who walks around the town a lot in daylight on weekdays I see a lot of filled bags left outside people's houses so obviously Charlbury is a good place for these companies to target. If people continue to contribute, we will continue to receive more and more plastic bags. Would these companies distribute bags so intensively in tough inner-city areas? No.

I would propose several courses of action to stop these collections:

1. Use a highlighter pen to highlight the postal address given on the bag and pop it in a postbox.

2. Put a sign on your front door saying "No clothing collections", like some people do for free newspapers and junk mail.

3. Take used clothes to a charity shop and never donate them to door-to-door collections.

If all else fails, keep using them as binbags!

Sat 4 Dec 2010, 09:18

I'm fed up with these too and been wondering how to stop them - like you can with junk mail and unaddressed mail delivered by the Post Office. Seems that the big legit charities have National Exemption Orders allowing them to make collections without having to apply to the Local Council, however, they do still have to notify the local council. This link lists an A-Z of charity bags collectors, the green ones have NEOs. The website also has interesting background about what happens to the stuff collected and how many are stolen and it seems that some parts of the country get loads more than us. I'll follow this up and put info on the CAWAG website. I'll also start recording who the bag is from before I put it in for recycling. I'd recommend people take clothes to local charity shops or our extremely popular Bring & Takes. Every now and again we have Frock Swaps which are a great idea to swap clothes amongst a group of friends and easily organised.

Fri 3 Dec 2010, 20:51

even better as bin liners!!

Thu 2 Dec 2010, 22:47

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I have put their plastic bags straight into the "eco-bin" for years.

Thu 2 Dec 2010, 22:20

Is anyone else getting fed up with the regular arrival of charity clothes collection bags through our front doors? I am. If I want to give clothes to charity I either put them in the Sally Army bin at the Spendlove, or give to a local charity shop in Witney or Woodstock. The plastic bags annoy me because

a) I think its a scam - the so-called charities collecting are in fact commercial companies who give a pittance to the charities they claim to collect for and

b) It's just one more piece of wasted plastic to recycle.

Any thoughts?