Goodwill is Hauling Your Trash
On the other side, we shop for those hard to find items and to clothe our families at a cost we can afford. We buy the furniture that was donated by those who are redecorating, and we furnish our homes with small kitchen appliances, large household appliances, and all those collectables that others see as throwaways, but we see as a treasure.
The Goodwill uses the profits they make to help those who find it difficult to help themselves. They house the homeless, feed the hungry, assist the ailing with medical treatment, provide transportation to those who find it difficult to get around, and they employ the developmentally challenged and those who have burned too many employable bridges to find other jobs.
After leasing their buildings, making vehicle payments, payroll, and all other cost it takes to run such a large company, all proceeds go to their generous contributions for those in need. However, many thoughtless people around the country are using the Goodwill deposit sites as their own personal dump site. So many do not want to pay the extra fees it costs to have curbside trash pick up their old broken furniture, yard clippings, and non working appliances, so they take them to Goodwill to dispose of.
Goodwill has now been faced with extra fees that have taken away from the people who need help. In Jacksonville, Florida alone, the business of charity has been forced to purchase a garbage truck using more than $130,000 in order to haul all the unwanted, nonfunctional items to the nearest landfill. They then have more fees to pay in order to dump the truck loads of trash at the landfill.
At this time, with prices going up and wages staying virtually the same, at a time when unemployment rates are high and the markets have affected so many, extra costs can hurt anyone and everyone. But there are alternatives to giving a nonprofit organization your curb-side junk. You can actually make money rather than cause someone else to pay for your disregard to those who work hard to help others.
First, have a yard sale with the items that may be wanted by others but are too damaged for the Goodwill to take. Even if you need to make a few repairs to some items, it would put money in your pocket rather than take money away from others. If it is nonworking appliances that you wish to rid yourself of, or technological products, there are a number of repair people looking for those items in order to make their own profit. Put an ad in your local paper about the sale, and specify the items being sold. So many people out there are counting on your old appliances for repairing then reselling them to pay their own bills.
Do you have old junk metal items? Take them to the local shredder. They will pay you for what you bring in. During a very challenging financial time, my husband and I were able to pay our utilities and put food on the table just by selling old metal junk from around our property. And we cleaned up our yard!
With all the yard clippings, grass cuttings, and piles of leaves, find out what the burn regulations are in your area. Do you have a fireplace? Do you have a burn barrel? Have a nice backyard “camp” fire with all your nontoxic yard trash rather than dumping it on someone who does not want it.
So stop taking from those who do so much for others by giving them your costly junk. Not always is “one man’s junk, another man’s treasure”. Sometimes one man’s junk is simply another man’s junk. So think before you dump.
