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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

Poll: Should we stop donating to charity shops?

This poll is almost 10 years old
 

Our second-hand donations result in African textile factories closing and people losing jobs. Do we just stop giving to charity shops?

Should we stop donating to charity shops?

Yes
19
No
52

​It has been revealed that 90% of the clothes we donate to charity shops end up being exported, mostly to Africa. The second-hand clothes export market from the UK to Ghana alone is thought to be worth around £50 million. Our cast-offs are being snapped up because they're cheaper than locally-made alternatives, resulting in African textile factories closing and people losing jobs. So is the answer to no longer give our worn-out clothes to charity shops? Or is there another solution?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Options
Voting in this poll has now closed
 

Comments

0 0
Jeremy
over 9 years ago
One of the main purposes of charity shops, in my view, is to provide inexpensive goods for the less well off (as well as, obviously, providing funds for whatever charity).Accordingly, when I donate goods to a charity shop in my local area I expect them - naively, it seems - to be sold to those less well off in my local area.The fact that so many of those goods are sent abroad not only goes against this purpose, but frankly is an insult to those people abroad who are expected to buy goods deemed too poor in quality to be saleable to people here.I shall think twice before donating in future.
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