The issue of duty and greening the planet!
Just a quick note to remind everyone to make sure their parcels are marked NO COMMERCIAL VALUE and FOR CHARITY ONLY. And please, please do not put any dollar value against what you are posting. Ronda has just paid out another US$100 + on a number of boxes that had dollar values placed on them. Because it was across so many boxes she could not return the boxes to sender. What it showed is that just a small value placed on a box and them multiplied across a number of boxes causes the duty to add up. We would much rather use this money in a more direct way to help the children.
So here is the check list:
Please don't give your parcel a DOLLAR VALUE
Write on the parcel NO COMMERCIAL VALUE
Write on the parcel FOR CHARITY ONLY.
Warming the orphans and greening the planet
On another note, did any of you read Sandie Roach's guest blog posted here on the forum? She comments that CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia) have estimated it takes 170,000 litres (44,909 gallons) of water to make one kilo of clean wool.
That is a statistic awful to contemplate in a water-starved continent like Australia. So un-ravelling an old jumper to make 8" squares is an act of considerable kindness for both the orphans and the planet.
I wonder how much water it takes to make acrylic yarn. It is a bit scarey to think of the carbon footprint of everything we use isn't it. Stash-busting it taking on ever deeper meaning.
So here is the check list:
Please don't give your parcel a DOLLAR VALUE
Write on the parcel NO COMMERCIAL VALUE
Write on the parcel FOR CHARITY ONLY.
Warming the orphans and greening the planet
On another note, did any of you read Sandie Roach's guest blog posted here on the forum? She comments that CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia) have estimated it takes 170,000 litres (44,909 gallons) of water to make one kilo of clean wool.
That is a statistic awful to contemplate in a water-starved continent like Australia. So un-ravelling an old jumper to make 8" squares is an act of considerable kindness for both the orphans and the planet.
I wonder how much water it takes to make acrylic yarn. It is a bit scarey to think of the carbon footprint of everything we use isn't it. Stash-busting it taking on ever deeper meaning.
Comment
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Comment by Elaine Jones on March 10, 2010 at 4:22am - Sandy, Daft question perhaps but, whilst I don't put any value on my parcels and I do write For Charity Only and No Commercial Value, I do normally put a weight on the customs form in grams. Does this ever cause problems? I think you mentioned somewhere that a weight given in ounces once resulted in a duty charge.
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Comment by Mary Kristel Lokken on February 17, 2010 at 7:21am -
Hi Sandy!
Your post inspired me to make another donation. Sure hope you got it!
Mary
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Comment by Mary Kristel Lokken on February 13, 2010 at 9:07am
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Thanks for the reminder Sandy!
I am finding very kind people at the post office who give me lots of advice about how to ship packages without making the recipient incur duty costs, however, who knows what happens when they get to South Africa...
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Comment by Dawne Smith-Sliming on February 12, 2010 at 3:25am - I am guessing here but I would say that making wool is probably kinder than making acrylic when it comes to all the various environmental issues. Wool is also less of a hazard around open flame fires so I'll stick with wool. Recycling sweaters is a great idea and would require less water to recondition the kinks out. A friend of mine has had great success with getting recycled yarn from a woman through Etsy.com. She has been pleased with the quality.
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Comment by Laurie C. Hake on February 12, 2010 at 2:45am - That amount of water for wool is mind blowing!!!! The things we DON'T think about. It would be interesting to find out how much it costs for acrylic.
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Comment by Sue Gillman on February 11, 2010 at 4:53pm - I am horrifeid and when I become a credit card holder I will put money into KAS to help cover the duty you have no doubt incurred on my two boxes.. I have a problem with our PO refusing to send parcels without $ value. I usually satisfy them with A $1 value but not always. I believe there may be a PO near work where the people may be more lenient. I will check up when I return to work. There is no value for me or KAS having items costing a large sum at both ends to send to SA. Monetary contributions may be of more value.
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Introduce knit-a-square to your schools 
Make a difference in an AIDS orphans life! Make a difference in your childrens lives! Start here with this 40 page, beautifully illustrated teacher resource, all for a small donation of $12.95. Click here.
Make a difference in an AIDS orphans life! Make a difference in your childrens lives! Start here with this 40 page, beautifully illustrated teacher resource, all for a small donation of $12.95. Click here.
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