They lurk in vast expanses of parking lot, that solidly paved hell unique to suburbia. This one sits roughly equidistant from a grocery store, two banks, a giant liquor store, a gas station, a Waffle House and a McDonald's.
They seem to be filled with clothing and shoes and coats and things no one wants anymore, freely donated by citizens and destined to be placed upon the backs (and feet) of the needy, while simultaneously funding non-profit organizations that help society like MADD, in this case. That's what they SEEM to be filled with, but in fact, they are filled with LIES!
The firm that runs these, American Textile Recycling Services (whose Tennessee Facebook page manages to fuck up the name of the state) is a FOR PROFIT firm that cleans out the bins, sells the stuff inside to secondhand clothing stores at a profit, and then sends a check for a small (though previously-agreed-upon and certainly not non-existent) percentage to their "community partners," otherwise known as the firm(s) without whose logo(s) you'd never have donated your old stuff in the first place. You'd have schlepped it to Goodwill or one of the religious guys.
So - drop your stuff in here, and a very small amount of it goes back to MADD. Most of it goes in the pockets of ATRS. Additionally, you take it out of the hands of people who actually are non-profits and run stuff like this. The problem has surfaced in Arizona and New Hampshire and here in Tennessee, and the only press otherwise I can find is self-generated or in the form of arguments about whether or not they're skimming and scamming. And then there's this person, who made it to the party WAY before I did.
So - short version: Don't put stuff in here unless it's nasty letters about inappropriate profit-making. If you have old stuff, consign it or hand it down, or take it to Goodwill, or a homeless shelter, or whatever. People need your old stuff. But not these people.
Thanks to Laura Dial (who never uses her Facebook page) for the heads-up on this.