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I recently moved to the Mission and until recently I had been utterly confused as to how entire bags of clothing would end up on the street. The bags usually look as if they exploded, sending socks, sweaters, shoes and old jeans helter-skelter about the sidewalk. At first I thought people were dropping items on the way to the laundromat or a clothing line had been robbed. The items that don’t get picked up (95% of them) remain on the street for weeks. The items get rained on, used as toilets by dogs, and blown into the street. I uncovered part of the mystery the other day when, after a weekend of house cleaning, tried to make a donation at the thrift store on Valencia. After going to the wrong drop-off a neighbor was kind enough to show me the right place to go. Turns out they don’t accept donations on the weekends. "Just leave it on the street," shouted one of the thrift store sorters who was 15 feet away from me on the other side of a fence. The neighbor who had showed me the way said, "I never bother donating. I just throw stuff out on the street. Someone will pick it up." I consider all of these street "donations" to be litter. Aside from people that spray-paint initials on trees, this is my largest pet peeve. The city needs to make donating and accepting clothing more effective and accessible.
Regina Sinsky
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