“Clothing presents a special problem. It makes up 40% to 50% of all donations and most of the time it is of little use to disaster victims. In Haiti, clothing donations of winter coats poured in. Of course, it’s never cold enough to warrant a winter coat there, even in January. Similarly, tons of clothes ended up in the dump after Hurricane Katrina, and in Japan it took one-third of one organization’s workers just to sort through the donated clothing before most of it was trashed. “It takes time to sort through and process all the stuff, and most of it just goes to the dump anyway,” says Holguin-Veras.”
Must read article to help you consider what to donate the next time. And, what NOT to give.
