USAgain Bins in Ames Collect Clothes for Profit
Clothing and shoe collection bins outside area businesses sell used items for profit.
Five USAgain clothing bins found in Ames are receiving free donations of clothing and shoes and some might mistakenly think that it's going to charity, but USAgain is a for profit company.
The bins can be found at Dollar General, Butch's Automotive, Scharnweber Water Conditioning, Hy-Vee, and KMart according to the company's web site: WWW.USAgain.com
The company's site states that USAgain is a for profit enterprise that collects used clothing and resells it. Currently the company has 10,000 bins in 17 states.
The company has been scrutinized in some towns for taking donations that could have gone to charity but Mattias Wallnder, USAgain CEO, told the Lincoln Courier that Americans throw away millions of pounds of textiles away each year.
“Our mission is to provide people with a convenient resource for discarding unwanted clothes, shoes and other textiles,” he said.
The bin found outside the Dollar General store in Ames states that USAgain is a for profit company. Calls made to the phone number on the bin were not returned.
In This article
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Dollar General
205 E Lincoln Way, Ames, IA -
Scharnweber Water Conditioning
1228 Grand Ave, Ames, IA -
Kmart
1405 Buckeye Ave, Ames, IA
Tvind Alert
7:55 am on Thursday, May 17, 2012
USAgain is indeed a private company and details of its ownership and how the money is likely to be used might come as a surprise - the boxes are operated by a 'cult' known in Europe as The Tvind Teachers Group, which uses offshore companies to avoid detection. Here's our web page on it: http://www.tvindalert.com/the-used-clothes-scam/
Erv Server
9:36 am on Thursday, May 17, 2012
Ames needs its Salvation Army store back
AA
3:52 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
What is wrong with being for profit. This green business is putting people to work and is paying taxes
Wade Larsen
4:13 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
“AA,” there's nothing wrong with being a for-profit company, except if that company has been routinely misrepresenting itself as a charity to local businesses and to the public. That's precisely what several media reports have accused USAgain of doing. Here are just a few of the reports:
* KIRO-7 Eyewitness News in Seattle; 2009:
Pt. 1) http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/millions-clothing-donations-diverted-charity/nFgRJ/
Pt. 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yb1G_vsc9E
(More reports follow in my 2nd comment)
Wade Larsen
4:14 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
Here’s my 2nd comment with a few other news stories about USAgain:
* The Herald & Review in Illinois; 2011: http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_b3869dde-3401-11e0-ae2a-001cc4c03286.html
* Tri-County News, Minnesota; 2009: http://www.tvindalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/tri-county-news.pdf
(More reports follow in my 3rd comment)
Wade Larsen
4:14 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
My 3rd comment with more media reports on USAgain:
* The Denver Post; 2005: http://www.icsahome.com/logon/elibdocview.asp?Subject=BBB%3A+Charity+bins+suspect
* Better Business Bureau of Denver/Boulder; 2005: http://www.denverbbb.com/files/public/2005_0708_July-August_Better_Business.pdf
(More reports follow in my 4th comment)
Wade Larsen
4:16 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
And here is my 4th comment:
* Time Magazine; 2003: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005148-1,00.html
* A 2001 Danish court document (translated into English by the Danish government) from The Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime, in Denmark. In the document (at bottom of p. 4), prosecutors list USAgain as one of Tvind’s “productive activities”: http://www.tvindalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Exhibit_C.pdf
I hope that these reports are interesting. Please research before you donate.