Concerns wishing to place unattended collection bins around Manteca for items ranging from clothes to books may soon have to do what people that conduct benefit car washes and use human advertising signs have to do – obtain a permit from the city.

The Manteca City Council Tuesday directed staff to fashion an ordinance along with a fee to cover the cost of issuing the permits. The proposed ordinance is not expected to be in place until early 2016 as state law requires a nexus study to make sure fees charged are justifiable.

Besides a permit, those placing unattended collection bins must state whether donations are being processed by a for-profit or a non-profit concern.

The proposed ordinance won’t impact those that have attended collection points around Manteca such as Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Hospice. Besides all three being non-profits that generate local jobs as opposed to firms that seek clothing and other donations, they do not have a problem of items that are left being dug out of bins and strewn around parking lots creating an eye sore.

Nor do they have homeless individuals climbing into collection as Manteca Police Captain Tony Souza told the council is happening at some unattended collection bins.

The collection bin issue was brought to the attention of cities throughout San Joaquin County by the Grand Jury.

The Grand Jury report notd that often times the unattended collection bins create eyesores with dropped off items strewn about the ground around them.

Also, all of the for-profit bins placed in San Joaquin benefit out-of-state corporations that pay no local or state taxes and provide no benefit locally.

The bins they place often include only small signs to indicate donations are not tax deductible and do not state that donations are exported to foreign countries for resale.

USAgain, according to its website, collected 60 million pounds of clothing from 10,000 donation sites in California and 16 other states during 2011. Most of it was resold for a profit in Latin America and Africa.

In testimony collected the Grand Jury found that clothing donations to non-profits such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army have fallen.

The report also notes non-profits do not operate unattended drop-off sites plus always have permission from property owners. That is not the case with for-profit firms that often place bins without asking for permission from property owners.

The local non-profits generate local jobs while the for-profits do not although USAgain has employees at Hayward warehouse operations.

The Grand Jury discovered the bins placed by for-profit organizations such as USAgain and Discover Books have hurt non-profits that serve San Joaquin County residents.

The agencies with the for-profit bins sell items they collect for a profit in Latin America and Africa.