I drove to the back of the Goodwill store at 3101 Clays Mill Road, in Lexington to donate items. I saw two employees with a large bin of donated items, and they were throwing the items from the bin into the trash dumpster. Why do they do this?

Erin Gold, vice-president of the Bluegrass Division of Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, explains: Goodwill has an order of priorities when managing donated items: first, try to sell items in their stores; second, if it can’t be sold, recycle the items; third, if the items cannot be sold or recycled, put the items in the trash.
Gold said items are disposed of reluctantly, and it can also be costly. Goodwill has to pay the expenses of disposing of materials like paint or tires, that are considered hazardous waste. “It is a last resort to dispose of items,” Gold said.
But, sometimes donations get old, wet, damaged or moldy, and those things cannot be sold. Glass, plastic and paper are  recycled locally. Clothing is bundled, sold, then shipped out of state, often to third world countries.
Books are sold to dealers who can sort through all the donations and can sometimes put together series of books that can then be resold.

Goodwill Industries of Kentucky states: “If an item is broken, torn, or stained, the item gets put in a bale, is sold at a bulk rate, and often gets shipped to third world countries.”

Filed under: Lexington info