LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Organizations like Goodwill rely on donations for many things, like providing jobs, cutting down on waste and giving new purpose to old products.
But what happens when people leave their unusable junk behind?
“Anytime there’s a situation where there’s a bin or something [when] somebody is leaving something, there’s the risk of somebody coming and leaving big or broken things and then there’s a risk of people coming and stealing that stuff," said Goodwill Retail Operations Officer Andrew Gackenbach. "We’ve known about it for a while, but recently it came up again as an issue for us,”
FOX43 received a picture of illegally dumped items outside The Salvation Army donation center in Lancaster, which showed a dresser and mattress in disarray while clothes littered the concrete.
Chavah Redmond with Community Aid says donation centers are often left to pay for cleanup.
“We see about a quarter-million dollars in trash every single year that we have to handle and that money, to your point, [can] be used elsewhere to do good in our communities," Redmond explained. "But, that funding is literally thrown away.”
Although illegal dumping is a problem, Redmond believes the act isn’t always malicious.
“People may just not understand the process. We come to the bin and [when] it's outside [of it] we can’t take it because it’s been exposed to the weather,” Redmond said.
Community Aid removed more than 1,000 donation bins across the state since 2020 due to ongoing illegal dumping and dumpster diving.
Other organizations continue to remove bins in favor of alternatives like mobile donation centers.
“Both theft and dumping are almost zero when we have a person there. The name of the game is to be as convenient as possible for our donors,” Gackenbach said.
In-store drop-offs are also encouraged.
“If there’s room in the bin, put it in. If it can’t fit anymore, take it to the store,” Redmond said.
Most donation centers are open daily and will accept a variety of items like clothes, electronics, toys and furniture.