What the article didn't say is that in these third world countries the cast off clothes from America have taken over the market and where once families supported themselves making clothes for their country men, now they have no income. Think of it next time you go Christmas shopping. The mall is FULL where does it all go? Where does it end? LIVE SIMPLY SO OTHERS CAN SIMPLY LIVE"

I saw something on the local news yesterday about TV's.

With the availability of cheap flat screen TV's now - everyone is donating their old big clunkers.

The charities can't even sell them for .99! They have to pay to have them recycled and it is costing a lot of money - so they are starting to refuse TV's.

What a wasteful society we are.

Regardless of what those news folks think they know, I have a 57 yr old 1/2 brother who has been both physically & mentally handicapped since early childhood, but in spite of all that he does not receive any welfare support. For the last 23 years Randy has worked for Goodwill Industries.

Randy lives about 6 miles from a large Goodwill Industries processing plant in Youngstown, Ohio and every morning a 12passenger van picks him up and transports him to work at the plant.

When he first started there he worked as a helper on one of their 4 trucks and they operated over a 30 mile radius picking up the donations at the drop boxes & stores and taking that to the processing plant. Then he worked inside the plant for years. He now works on cleaning service van operated by Goodwill that contracts to clean offices at night.

I am personally acquanted with the general manager at the processing plant and I have been through the entire operation many times.

When the donations first come in they are set off at the loading docks and sorted. All electronics is sent to one part of the plant, lamps, small appliances and electrical tools to another, computers and electronic games to another part and all clothing to the main part of the plant.

The clothing is carefully sorted. The items that are in good repair, free of major stains and within current styles are sent to the laundry where they are either washed and dried or dry cleaned, whichever is necessary, tehn they are dried, hung on hangers and placed on racks to go out to the retail stores.

Any items that have tears, paint spots or large stains are sent to the rag department. In the rag department they are sorted with cottons in one batch, synthetics in another and denims in another. The absorbant fabrics such as tee shirts, sweat shirts, sweat pants & such are cut into 10 to 12" squares and bagged, boxed or baled for retail as cleaning rags. Synthetics are baled in 100lb bales and sold commercially. (I don't know what they are used for). The majority of the denims that sent to the rag department are baled in 100 or 500lb bales and sent to Crane Paper Company in Dalton,Massachusetts where they are recycled into a special paper for the U.S. Treasury Department to print money.

In the appliance shop lamps are rewired, vacuums cleaners repaired and all varieties of small appliances and electrical hand tools are repaired and tested, then sent to the Goodwill Retail stores.

In the computer shop some computers are fully restored and prepared for retail while others are stripped for components or special metal recycling programs.

All in all, it is a very impressive operation, especially when you consider that the pre-requisite for employment is either being homeless or having a physical or mental handicap ( and many fill all three of those categories).

Now it is true that Goodwill sends clothing to third world countries, but for the most part that is clothing that is so far out of style that they can't sell it here, or it is clothing that has been sent out to the retail stores and if it doesn't sell within a reasonable time it is sent overseas.

No in addition to all of that, in most communities Goodwill works very closely witht the local fire department so if a family looses their home to fire, flood or other dissaster every member of the family is given a voucher to go to Goodwill and select a small wardrobe plus essential kitchen equipment and sometimes even furniture free of charge.

Now does Goodwill Industries make a profit? Sure they do, because that is the American way, but while making their profit they also provide good jobs paying a competitive wage, with health & welfare benefits to a class of ppl who would not even be considered for hiring in most companies.

Goodwill not even has an online auction similar to Ebay, but I can assure you, the prices are pennies on the dollar. I personally watch it every day and I have bought hundreds of dollars worth of photographic equipment, much of which is not even available on the common market...

Check it out:

www.shopgoodwill.com

Great site lazypup. I bookmarked it. Thanks.

Thanks for the education lazypup. I had no idea whatsoever what a huge, conplicated operation they have.

Very interesting.

Thanks for the info Lazypup

I don't thing the needy in Africa gets the clothes for free, maybe the ones that don't sell even over there. Our guide said they are sold and the poor can't afford them. I saw the street vendors selling them. He also said the poor children can't go to mission schools because they can't afford the books and uniforms. He also said they don't need missionaries anymore because they have their own religion. Our guide said he was confirmed at the age of 13 and chose the English name of Sammy. He also said the Africans prefer the clothes from America because the quality is better than the ones made in their country. When we drove through Nairobi, the streets were filled with men dressed in very old style suits. I asked the guide about them, he said they spend every thing they have to buy the suit thinking that when they get to the city they will be able to get a job. After that trip I took clothes didn't want anymore, wore them and left them in the lodges for the maids or gave them to the guides.

That was interesting, Lazypup--thanks. I'm surprised to learn that the clothes are washed or dry cleaned before sold at retail. I would think that would cut drastically into economics of the operation. The clothes I buy at Salvation Army certainly don't appear to have been laundered. Perhaps they do things differently at Goodwill.

There is a local place that accepts old TV, computers, monitors and stuff like that for free....they even pick up stuff for free.
They recycle electronics and use the computers for local kids and provide field trips to the beach to learn about flora and fauna with the money they make from recycling.
I wish more communities did the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Exploration Station