Donations that charity shops do not accept

Popped into my local Oxfam shop this morning and overheard a conversation at the counter. A gentleman holding a bag of used home items seemed to be having trouble getting his donations accepted. I didn't know that charity shops actually turn down donations. I was surprised, I have always thought that charity shops are very good at redistributing second hand goods to those that need them the most.

It turns out that there are items that even charity shops do not take. The reason given to the gentleman why his kettles and lamps could not be accepted were due to safety reasons. There were also limited information at the shop about where these items may be accepted instead. 

So, before leaving the shop, with a sad tone the gentleman commented that he then had no choice but to throw away the perfectly usable and beautiful appliances. A hundred and one alarms went off in my head at this point. Something is seriously wrong here, surely this is a sign that something is not functioning correctly! There must be tens of thousands of homes and millions of individuals that could have benefited by these items (and would gladly take them at their own risk if given the choice). Instead, under our current system, these items are now going to a landfill, which creates even more problems in the near future.

Can anybody pin point what the problem is here. Is it the safety rules imposed on charity shops? Is it due to the charity's own operational restrictions?

We need a system that collects and redirect goods that charity shops cannot sell, to people and homes that may have uses for them. We also need these information to be made available at charity shops so that those donating or those looking for unwanted items are aware of the options available to them. Those service components already exists in our society (I am sure there are charities that collects and test electricals), it's really just a matter of connecting one to another and working together.

It doesn't sound like rocket science and with some flexibility we should be able to prevent this type of unnecessary waste immediately.