They're everywhere — gas stations, convenience store parking lots, even municipal transfer stations. Clothing donation bins dot parking lots across Southern New Hampshire. The used-clothing business is becoming highly competitive, and some nonprofit groups want to make sure people know where their donations are going.
Donations to the Salvation Army's clothes bins in southern New England has decreased by 20 percent in the past year and a half, according to Mark Unruh, administrator for the Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center in Portland, Maine.
Unruh said the charity is finding it difficult to compete with for-profit companies and what he referred to as "not-so-nonprofit" organizations. The charity has a few bins in parking lots and transfer stations in Southern New Hampshire and a thrift store in Salem, but would like to add more bins in the area.
"We've always coexisted with Goodwill fine," Unruh said. "Now that the for-profits are coming in, we're hurting."
About 7 percent of the state's 1.4 million tons of waste last year was textiles, according to Donald Maurer, recycling coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. Maurer said the growing business of clothes recycling has been a help keeping clothes out of the waste stream.
One of the most common bins in Rockingham County is yellow and reads "Public Clothes Drop" on the side. They're owned and operated by New England Clothes Recycling, a private company based in Chelmsford, Mass. The company has 20 to 25 bins in Southern New Hampshire, with more throughout Massachusetts.
Dwight Robinson, president of New England Clothes Recycling, said the company was not established to compete with charities. When he started his business 15 years ago, he said, there were no other clothes recycling bins in the area. Robinson said his intention is to operate an eco-friendly business.
"Our goal is to recycle the clothes and keep them out of the landfills," he said.
The company's bins have a small disclaimer on them: "This is a recycling effort by a private company, not a charity."
Goodwill Industries International also collects used clothing, but not through containers in parking lots. Instead, they accept clothes at their retail stores, like the one they operate on 4 Orchard View Drive in Londonderry.
No clothes go to waste
The usable clothes they receive never leave the store, according to Christine Bragale, spokeswoman for the nonprofit organization. They are sorted, inspected and put on the racks for sale. The rest are either cut into cleaning cloths to sell, or sold to a company that grinds them down into fiber and to create industrial cloth, like the material used for lining in a car trunk. The profits fund job-training programs for people with disabilities.
Last year, Goodwill generated $1.9 billion in revenue nationally through the sale of all its goods — including clothing, jewelry and furniture — at their retail stores. According to Bragale, 84 percent of the charity's total revenues is used to fund their charitable programs.
While nonprofit organizations use the proceeds from their clothing collections to run charitable programs, private companies often pass some of the profits on to the places hosting bins.
New England Clothes Recycling either pays a monthly fee or a by-the-pound rate to places that host its containers. They collect the clothes from the containers and sell them to a distributor by the pound. The usable clothes end up in thrift stores; the others are sold to a company to be used for their fibers.
Goodwill has seen steady growth over the last few years, even with the influx of clothing bins in the area, but officials for the organization worry that people often don't realize what they are giving to.
"One of our main concerns is that we want people to know where they are giving," Bragale said. "We don't want people to mistake for-profits for nonprofits."
Londonderry resident Mary Knowles said she always brings her old clothes to the Goodwill retail store because she knows her donations will go to a good cause.
"I see the other bins popping up, but I don't know where the clothes are going or what (the companies) do," Knowles said after dropping clothes off at the Goodwill store in Londonderry.
Many community centers and churches also run thrift shops. The Marion Gerrish Thrift Shop has operated out of the basement of the Marion Gerrish Community Center on 39 West Broadway in Derry since the 1970s, according to Mary Anne Lombardo, manager of the shop.
Like Goodwill, most of the clothes the thrift shop receives are sold there. The thrift shop, which is the primary source of revenue for the community center, has seen an increase in clothes donations in recent years, Lombardo said.
Debbie Bayley, a clothes sorter at the thrift shop, said she thinks many people who drop clothes in parking lot bins don't know what they are giving to.
"Most of the bins don't say anything on them," Bayley said. "A lot don't have a phone number or any kind of contact if you want to get information."
Ecosmith Recyclers, a for-profit clothes recycling company based in Londonderry, pays transfer stations, private companies and nonprofit organizations between 15 and 18 percent of their gross revenue in return for hosting one of their bins. The clothes they collect are sold — about 40,000 pounds at a time — to international brokers. Repeated phone calls to the company were not returned.
Nonprofits use profits for programs
Along with for-profit companies, another major nonprofit organization has set up numerous bins in Southern New Hampshire. Massachusetts-based Planet Aid collects clothes from their bins and sells them to a distributor in Canada by the truckload, said Doug Bailey, Plant Aid spokesman.
The charity uses the profits to fund teacher training and development programs in Third World countries. Last year, the organization recycled 75 million tons of clothes nationally. According to Bailey, they have more than 600 bins in New Hampshire.
The Salvation Army and Goodwill have both received high marks from organizations that review nonprofits, such as the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance and the American Institute of Philanthropy. Planet Aid has not received the same positive evaluations.
As part of its review process for nonprofit organizations, the Wise Giving Alliance has 20 standards for nonprofit organizations. All were met by Goodwill. The Salvation Army is in the process of being evaluated.
About one-third of the charities the alliance reviews failed to meet at least one of these standards, according to Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Wise Giving Alliance. But Planet Aid failed to meet three of these standards, mainly because of the charity's low ratio between operating costs and money that goes to charitable programs.
Planet Aid spent nearly $14 million on fundraising and administrative expenses in 2006, and just $5.4 million on its charitable programs, according to the Wise Giving Alliance. Comparatively, Goodwill spent $5.5 million on fundraising and administrative expenses and $10.5 million on programs. Planet Aid also receives criticism because they don't operate the programs they fund.
But Bailey said the evaluation isn't an accurate reflection of the quality of the charity.
"We only collect and sell clothes, and there is a very high expense to that," Bailey said. "Other organizations get huge contributions and grants; we don't get that."
With all of the different options available, Unruh hopes that people will take the time to figure out what they are giving to.
"It's convenient to stick your donations in any box," Unruh said. "But it's good for people to do some research and know what they are giving to."
