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Spoke with the GW employee friend and got the answer I was looking for.
Apparently, early this year or so (if he recalls correctly...), Congress passed a Consumer Protections-type law, which had, as part of it, provisions regarding charities' ability to accept certain items. This was primarily intended to keep them from taking in items containing lead-based paint or other problematic/dangerous chemicals. A scanner device is available for purchase that can detect these chemicals as needed. The problem is, they'd need one for each store to use, and the devices cost somewhere around thirty GRAND each.
Put simply, they cannot afford it, and they'd rather use that money to actually help people who need their help -- also, keep in mind what was said above about people who drop stuff off at the stores when nobody is there to check them in.
The solution that they ended up having to do is just to maintain a list of general item types where SOME of the items from some manufacturers had these problems, and they simply reject all incoming items of that generic type. Naturally, the rejects would often mysteriously show up in their donation bins overnight after everybody had gone home. He said that they used to be able to refuse such donations outright, but he implied that this is no longer the case, and that they have to just take them and toss them...which is rather expensive, but apparently still cheaper than buying a scanner. He also confirmed that the employees are not allowed to take the items home/buy them, either, even if the item is from a manufacturer with no history of "problematic" chemicals in their products.
Apparently, early this year or so (if he recalls correctly...), Congress passed a Consumer Protections-type law, which had, as part of it, provisions regarding charities' ability to accept certain items. This was primarily intended to keep them from taking in items containing lead-based paint or other problematic/dangerous chemicals. A scanner device is available for purchase that can detect these chemicals as needed. The problem is, they'd need one for each store to use, and the devices cost somewhere around thirty GRAND each.
Put simply, they cannot afford it, and they'd rather use that money to actually help people who need their help -- also, keep in mind what was said above about people who drop stuff off at the stores when nobody is there to check them in. The solution that they ended up having to do is just to maintain a list of general item types where SOME of the items from some manufacturers had these problems, and they simply reject all incoming items of that generic type. Naturally, the rejects would often mysteriously show up in their donation bins overnight after everybody had gone home. He said that they used to be able to refuse such donations outright, but he implied that this is no longer the case, and that they have to just take them and toss them...which is rather expensive, but apparently still cheaper than buying a scanner. He also confirmed that the employees are not allowed to take the items home/buy them, either, even if the item is from a manufacturer with no history of "problematic" chemicals in their products.
Oh yeah, an SC. 
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