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Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

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Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#161

Post by michaelmrose »

prvc wrote: post #134
KillahBhyte wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If something ever seems like a popular but illogical set of actions by people, the best way to understand it is to look at the incentives that drive it (thanks Freakonomics). In this case I'd wager two things. As a kid I had family who worked a receiving center for Goodwill. Fairly affluent part of our town near the beach. I remember two distinct things being odd to me then. The items people would bring would sometim…

>I was told then when I asked this was an approximate value of their donation and it was used for tax purposes. So one is probably tax write offs. Anything preventing them from just making up that figure?

An eventual audit that if they hit the anti lottery could cost them more than they could possibly save. Remember that you don't get to just deduct a donation from your taxes you deduct it from your income which lowers your taxes. For example if you ultimately pay about 30% of your income in federal taxes and you lower your income by 1000 you ultimately have reduced your taxes by $300.

Donations 5000 and up require the person you donated to to fill out a tax form for that donation so making up the numbers would require a confederate in the donating org to be willing to risk prison to enrich you.

https://www.amazinggoodwill.com/donating/IRS-guidelines

Also remember that the bottom half of the country pays little federal income tax (because they don't make much of the income in America) and the top 10-20% has MUCH better legal tax avoidance strategies.

It's likely that some portion of middle income individuals could avoid a small dollar figure in taxes by inflating or even fabricating a string of small donations and presumably out of hundreds of millions of people a few do but you would have to make up a LOT of bullshit donations to make much of a difference but before you could actually save much money you would end up sticking out like a sore thumb. Yes Mr IRS auditor I totally donated over 1000 in goods to goodwill on 10 separate occasions over 2021 and I totally deserve the corresponding $3000 deduction!

On net its probably a small issue. At this point we have people making 6 figures + who just don't file tax returns and haven't been addressed.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#162

Post by jxramos »

rhino369 wrote: post #103
mumblemumble wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to what others have said, I think that a lot of people have this idea that "trash = bad" so deeply internalized that they're heavily biased toward only putting things in the bin when there can be no doubt whatsoever that it is garbage. You also see this when people put greasy paper take-out food containers in the recycling. No, it's not recyclable, and worse, it might further contaminate other things and rende…

Recycling education is awful in America. I made it about 33 years without hearing that take out containers, etc. can’t be recycled.

the problem is the recycling triangle that's imprinted on the containers, the one's showing the material code on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_codes. Somewhere along the line the recycle triangle had become synonymous with recyclable, but what didn't get communicated is that only certain codes paired with that triangle are actually recyclable.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#163

Post by boringg »

the_gipsy wrote: post #156
syshum wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime... What is more humane. Having them depend on the charity and free goods of others, or building their economy to be self sustaining

Why should they do meaningless work?

Um not to be crass but like most of the work everyone does on this form is probably close meaningless and often times redundant. I don't mean it in a derogatory way.

And the adjective you should have used is redundant work. Clearly the work has meaning if it keeps people employed and building skills.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#164

Post by sumtechguy »

UnFleshedOne wrote: post #112
sumtechguy wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could be a bit of survivorship bias too. I too have cloths that are 20+ years old. But other stuff from the same era is long gone too. For me it is one of two things the stitching just comes undone and ends up tearing the fabric. Or the fabric is just threadbare. I do have to agree though with the quality. It has really dipped in the past 10 or so years I would say. Especially in things I used to consider durabl…

Kids these days are buying jeans with holes in them already. They don't even have a decency to get them worn down personally...

Think holes in jeans has been a thing for awhile :) Pretty sure we we had them when I was a kid and that was a decent time back...

There is a difference though for making holes. If I just whip out a pair of scissors and go to town that hole will get larger and larger until the garment is unusable. I usually get the same if I get them naturally. But holes that are put in at the factory they seem to put some thought into it and they last a decent amount of time and do not grow as badly. Have not dug to much into it because I prefer it without so I have not looked into how to DIY.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#166

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st »

jeromegv wrote: post #101
mumblemumble wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to what others have said, I think that a lot of people have this idea that "trash = bad" so deeply internalized that they're heavily biased toward only putting things in the bin when there can be no doubt whatsoever that it is garbage. You also see this when people put greasy paper take-out food containers in the recycling. No, it's not recyclable, and worse, it might further contaminate other things and rende…

Yep, I asked people to do the same recently at a party. They were entirely shocked. It's like realizing that your disposable cutlery and plates are actually waste and seeing it going into the actual trash makes them realize how wasteful it is. Recycle (or charity giving of clothes) is such a "guilt free" behaviour, feeling like you do something good for no efforts, so I'm not surprised people would do it even when it…

Depressingly that was the point of recycling in the US

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-...

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#167

Post by klyrs »

rhino369 wrote: post #103
mumblemumble wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to what others have said, I think that a lot of people have this idea that "trash = bad" so deeply internalized that they're heavily biased toward only putting things in the bin when there can be no doubt whatsoever that it is garbage. You also see this when people put greasy paper take-out food containers in the recycling. No, it's not recyclable, and worse, it might further contaminate other things and rende…

Recycling education is awful in America. I made it about 33 years without hearing that take out containers, etc. can’t be recycled.

Some can, if you wash them. Puts a damper in the easy disposal that folks are accustomed to, though.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#168

Post by ctdonath »

mumblemumble wrote: post #91
dylan604 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why would anyone "donate" these is a different matter This is a very big question though. WTF are people thinking? There's a difference between no longer wearing something because it no longer fits but is otherwise in good condition to not being used because it's completely ruined. What mental block exists in the original owner from just throwing away the ruined items vs just holding onto them to donate so someone e…

To add to what others have said, I think that a lot of people have this idea that "trash = bad" so deeply internalized that they're heavily biased toward only putting things in the bin when there can be no doubt whatsoever that it is garbage. You also see this when people put greasy paper take-out food containers in the recycling. No, it's not recyclable, and worse, it might further contaminate other things and rende…

Plainly dirty, obviously goes in the trash.

But where then is the line for what's otherwise clearly marked with the recycling symbol? ...especially when there's lingering suspicion the recycling bin contents are ultimately ending up in the landfill with the rest of it all?

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#169

Post by only_as_i_fall »

cryptonym wrote: post #137
only_as_i_fall wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does banning the import of secondhand clothing reduce waste? Unless you can prevent westerners from getting rid of clothes in the first place this really seems like paying people to dig and refill holes. Work for the sake of work.

I didn't mention banning import of secondhand clothing, so I leave it to you. One way to prevent "westerner" from getting rid of clothes is by having them buying quality products at a fair price, including waste treatment. Now how that would be implemented, no idea. We all know any change will have side effects as we are in a complex economy and that doesn't mean we cannot try. Just to keep the discussion open on red…

Ok, but this is literally a thread about how cheap second hand clothes coming from western countries affect the local industries of African nations so I don't really know what you're on about

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#170

Post by ctdonath »

prvc wrote: post #134
KillahBhyte wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If something ever seems like a popular but illogical set of actions by people, the best way to understand it is to look at the incentives that drive it (thanks Freakonomics). In this case I'd wager two things. As a kid I had family who worked a receiving center for Goodwill. Fairly affluent part of our town near the beach. I remember two distinct things being odd to me then. The items people would bring would sometim…

>I was told then when I asked this was an approximate value of their donation and it was used for tax purposes. So one is probably tax write offs. Anything preventing them from just making up that figure?

Bill Clinton famously donated used underwear, tax write-off claim of $2-6 each.
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