News Report: Traveler now "donate" personal care products to homeless.
Just heard a radio news report this morning that our local area state senator has brokered a deal in which the hundreds of pounds of toiletries, water, lotions and so forth that are confiscated by TSA at our local airport will be donated to a local homeless shelter. He is crowing about how all the many unused, unopened "high quality" products will make a nice difference for those in need.
All this begs the question. If we are confident that the seized materials are safe, why are they being confiscated in the first place? Isn't the perception that we just don't know if they are dangerous or not, so better safe than sorry? If TSA is concerned that these items are too dangerous for the owner/traveler to keep, why are we endangering the poor and needy? Is any testing going to be done before unloading the stuff on the local shelters?
An airport official was quoted as saying this will save tons of materials per year from being dumped into our overcrowded landfill. I think that is the real motivation here.
You'd think the policy makers would see the inanity of all this but I suppose that is giving far more credit to the politicians than they deserve.
I don't think forced confiscation and redistribution of anything of value constitutes a "donation."