Thank you
for your article in the spring 2009 edition of RealGreen called “Finding Used
Items Online.” As an avid user of
freecycle, we feel this, along with the other websites listed, are great ways
to reduce the products going into the landfill, while providing real economic
relief to others---not to mention the relief of the donors to get the said
items out of their garage.
I am sure
we are like most people, in that the bulk of the items being swapped are for
children. High chairs, books, clothing, DVDs,
toys, etc. Unfortunately, the bulk of
these items are now not being accepted by Goodwill (you had listed
shopgoodwill.com), they are illegal to sell on ebay or craigslist, even illegal
to sell at your local yard sale or community fundraiser. They are also, in all likelihood, illegal
even to give away. Please see the
following list from Page 28 of the CPSC handbook http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/thrift/thrguid.pdf
for resellers. The very first paragraph
on page 3 confirms this extends to yard sales.
What can we
learn from the cleverly worded statements in this list:
- Any product for children (12
and under) that has PAINT cannot be sold.
- Clothes made up ONLY
of the materials in the 2nd box can be sold. What is missing? See box #3, basic clothing accessories such as metallic and plastic buttons, snaps, zippers…etc., unless you
contact the manufacturer. Huh? Contact the manufacturer of an old,
beat-up pair of jeans and a dress from who knows who? So, in sum, do not sell items with these
parts. Hey, Velcro is the new rage
of thrifts!
- Any children’s book printed
before 1986 is illegal. Any child’s
book printed 1986 and beyond can only be sold if it is used for “reading”,
not playing. Hmm.
- Something that is mysteriously
missing, but completely clear that it is illegal thanks to the NY Circuit
Court decision to apply the CPSIA retroactively, is anything with plastic
or vinyl, unless you have had these items tested for phthalates. Right, I am going to go spend $200 to
test that old doll, or that tiny tikes play set. To the landfill (or black-market) we go!
Where does
this leave us? Most children’s clothes,
toys, and furniture (unless you sand off that paint, and it has no plastic or
metal components), and many books are now illegal to be resold (and being
interpreted by many as illegal to give-away).
I would ask
that you please print a correction to this article in the next issue of RealGreen
so that readers understand that 80-90% of what they actually recirculate via
these channels is now illegal. To do
otherwise would be irresponsible as it could cause many of your readers to face
very stiff fines, and perhaps even jail time.
This type of legislation, that has the good intent of trying to keep us
safer, while ignoring the unintended consequences of losing resale channels
will not go away by ignoring it, or by writing as though this law does not
exist.
The next
shock to our green community will be when our natural and fairly traded
children’s products start disappearing in a more noticeable way. They have started disappearing; our catalog
is half the size of last year, many home crafters on Etsy have shuttered their
businesses, Selecta and other European manufacturers have left the USA. These products are gone, not because they do
not meet the standards. Rather, these
are niche products that cannot afford the redundant, expensive testing mandated
by the CPSIA.
I hope that
the Democratic party, that party that has long been a voice for green living,
and that party that has complete power to make changes to this law to make it
workable for our lifestyle, makes common sense amendments to allow the second
hand market, as well as natural children’s products by niche players, to
survive.
I encourage
Green America steps up to inform its readership of this issue, and takes a
leadership role for change.
Sincerely,
Rob Wilson
Challenge & Fun, Inc.
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