I find it unbelievable, in a whole host of different ways, that 8 Canadians have died in the last 3 years in those charitable clothing donation bins you see on the edge of parking lots. A similar thing is happening south of the border too.
I must confess I have never actually used one - we tend to take used clothes to Value Village, or have them collected by the Kidney Foundation - and I can't really visualize how they work or how a person might end up stuck in one. I can't imagine it would be easy, though. Apparently, it can happen when someone tries to retrieve an item of clothing from one, or decides to use it as a (relatively) warm nest in which to spend the night. So, essentially we are talking here about homeless people.
It's partly that I can't imagine anyone being desperate enough, or cognitively challenged enough, to want to crawl into one. I know that homeless shelters are not exactly pleasant, but they must be a better option than risking life and limb in a donation bin. But then, I also know that many homeless people suffer from various varieties of mental health issues, which of course must also be a factor.
For homeless activists to call the donation bins "death traps" is a bit strong, though. The average car is a death trap if used inappropriately (and god know, we have seen that often enough in recent years too), but you don't see people calling for them to be banned. I feel kind of sorry for the manufacturers of the bins, who now either need to withdraw them all from service, or at the very least seriously tinker with their designs. Here are people who thought they were helping charities make a hard-earned and much-needed buck or two, and now they are being branded as serial killers or something close? What a world we live in.
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