Goodwill Industries will accept the shirt off your back, as well as all those off your (closet) rack, at their clothing donation boxes and sheds around the Coastal Empire.
But the local nonprofit is no longer the only group interested in clothing discards. Donation boxes owned by for-profit clothing recyclers have popped up in shopping center parking lots around Savannah in recent months.
And with clothing donations to Goodwill running “significantly low for this time of year,” according to an official, there is little good will for the new competition.
“The recession and economic times have something to do with it, but I think there are other factors at work,” said Steven Bellmoff, Goodwill’s director of donor and business development. “Look around town and there’s a new colored box for clothing donations appearing every day.”
Two clothing recyclers in particular have emerged as Goodwill rivals locally. Mid-Atlantic Clothing Recycling, based in Maryland, and Second Life Recycling out of North Carolina have donation boxes in the parking lots of several local shopping centers, including Savannah Crossing, Chatham Plaza and Savannah Centre.
These companies lease the space for the boxes from the property owner or manager and do share a piece of their proceeds with charities.
Mid-Atlantic partners with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) organization and advertises the relationship on the drop boxes. Second Life does not claim charitable connections on its boxes but does mention charity work on its website, although the beneficiaries are not listed.
“They put the words ‘clothing donations’ on there and people automatically think it’s for charity,” Bellmoff said. “The reality is only a small percentage goes to charity, and very little of that stays local.”
Big business
D.A.R.E. receives a relatively token amount from Mid-Atlantic Clothing Recyclers, but without the proceeds from the partnership the organization “could not keep D.A.R.E. alive in Georgia,” according to regional director John Lindsay.
Mid-Atlantic pays D.A.R.E. a flat fee of $325 per box per year to put the charity’s name and logo on the donation box, according to Lindsay. The four boxes spread around the parking lot of the Savannah Crossing shopping center, located on Abercorn Street across from Armstrong Atlantic State University, means $1,300 for D.A.R.E.
How much the recycler makes per bin is hard to quantify. Much of the donated clothing that can be re-worn is sold overseas and fetches as much as $2 a pound. The United States exported more than $605 million worth of worn clothing in 2011, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
And even the least wearable clothing articles in the bin can be sold for around 25 cents a pound and recycled into industrial cleaning cloths.
The donation boxes might as well be stuffed with money, which is why Second Life is willing to pay $250 a month for space to place its six-feet-by-six-feet box.
Widespread problem
Savannah is not the only market where non-profits that rely heavily on clothing donations are struggling.
Goodwill of Central Arizona saw its volume of donated items drop by 40 percent in the months following the appearance of the for-profit recyclers’ boxes.
Goodwill in Palm Beach County, Fla., reported a 20 percent drop in the first two months of this year. The falloff also coincided with for-profit rivals entering the marketplace.
The donation boxes of many colors have led local governments to get involved in areas where the bins violate zoning ordinances.
Savannah and Chatham County’s ordinances do not address the boxes, according to Tom Thomson with the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, although the proposed Unified Zoning Ordinance would require permits to ensure the property meets parking requirements.
With no recourse against the for-profit box operators, Goodwill is focused instead on public awareness of the issue. The organization is also calling for increased donations.
“The proceeds are what fund our mission,” Bellmoff said. “We’ve put over 600 people to work in this community this year with those proceeds. It’s vital that we address our donation shortage quickly.”
DONATIONS ALSO DOWN AT SALVATION ARMY
Another local non-profit organization that operates clothing thrift shops to generate program revenue, The Salvation Army, has also seen a recent slowdown in clothing donations.
"This has been one of our slowest years in terms of donated goods," Capt. Marion Platt, III wrote in an email.
He called the appearance of for-profit donation boxes locally a "great concern to organizations like The Salvation Army and others who use the charitable contributions of gently used items to do good in the community and transform lives."