My experiences volunteering at goodwill and habit for humanity ReStore.
A bag will come in full of items. A small subset of that bag will be pulled out to go on shelves. The majority of the bag will be sent to "salvage" (trash/recycling).
Some folks have a curated selection of items they bring in that mostly get accepted, but usually the folks doing that just take it to a real consignment shop, or sell it on something like facebook marketplace.
Generally - a large portion of the donations are exactly this situation: used items in a big trashbag that come in after a move (or eviction [or death]).
They go in the trash. Where the owner probably should have put them a while back. I also don't like how much churn exists in our modern consumption economy - but it's not doing favors to pretend it doesn't exist. Much of our "stuff" is low cost, semi-consumable items that will end up trashed - by design. I don't like it either, but saying "Donate it" is like pretending recycling is going to solve plastic pollution.
Gotcha. I think I had a different situation in mind where the things are already pre-selected. If there's bags of garbage or stuff nobody needs, sure those would have to be disposed of. Totally depends on what the input is.
Sure, and that's fair and I'm not saying you shouldn't donate like that (frankly - that about the only way you should donate if you want to actually be helpful).
I think the reality is that online marketplaces basically fill that gap, though.
Most folks who have items that they know aren't trash try to sell them themselves online these days (or best case - use things like "BuyNothing" groups).
But if you can't move it on facebook marketplace, the sad reality is that goodwill and the like are also probably going to put it in the trash if you donate it to them.
Even places like homeless shelters are very picky (exclusively "new" or "gently used" donations of specific items).
There's just a lot of work in "matching" used items to people who want/need those items, and most times the value of the item is lower than the value of that work (even when that work is heavily discounted by volunteers).
A bag will come in full of items. A small subset of that bag will be pulled out to go on shelves. The majority of the bag will be sent to "salvage" (trash/recycling).
Some folks have a curated selection of items they bring in that mostly get accepted, but usually the folks doing that just take it to a real consignment shop, or sell it on something like facebook marketplace.
Generally - a large portion of the donations are exactly this situation: used items in a big trashbag that come in after a move (or eviction [or death]).
They go in the trash. Where the owner probably should have put them a while back. I also don't like how much churn exists in our modern consumption economy - but it's not doing favors to pretend it doesn't exist. Much of our "stuff" is low cost, semi-consumable items that will end up trashed - by design. I don't like it either, but saying "Donate it" is like pretending recycling is going to solve plastic pollution.