SEDRO-WOOLLEY — Mayor Mike Anderson plans to remove a big red box on city property that asks for clothing donations — and he’s advising local retailers to do the same.

The boxes are manned by U’SAgain, a for-profit textile recycling company with alleged ties to Tvind, a worldwide network founded in Denmark in the 1970s as an alternative educational movement. The network’s founder and affiliates have been under investigation for fraud and corruption in Denmark, according to reports in the European media.

About 50 percent of U’SAgain donations stay in the community, the company’s Web site states, while the other half is either sorted for various markets or exported to be sold at small thrift stores outside the country.

With a spread of nonprofits asking for donations this time of year, Anderson said he plans to steer clear of the mysterious red bins.

“If you’re gonna donate personal belongings, I would rather donate to something that stays in our community,” he said.

Anderson suggested donating clothes to Soroptomists of Sedro-Woolley, which then sells the clothes to help fund scholarships for local students, or to Goodwill, where clothes are resold locally.

His reservations first arose after a KIRO TV report that asserted that “millions of clothing donations” are being diverted from charities by U’SAgain, he said.

U’SAgain has since posted a letter on its Web site to Seattle area sponsors of the big red boxes to address some of the issues raised in the televised story.

“Unsorted used clothing in bulk is valued at cents per pound. This in no way amounts to ‘millions’ of dollars,” states the letter to hosts of the 650 drop boxes located in Puget Sound. The company also hosts donation boxes in seven other large U.S. cities, its Web site says.

U’SAgain’s boxes say that it is “a commercial company, doing something good for our environment.”

The company is making use of clothing that would otherwise end up in landfills, where 85 percent of clothes will end up anyway, the online statement says.

But Anderson said the wording on the red boxes is confusing and leads donors and business hosts to believe they are strictly benefiting a charity.

“It’s sort of deceiving. They say ‘We work with nonprofit outfits.’ It kind of gives you that impression that they’re nonprofit, but they’re not,” Anderson said.

U’SAgain’s Web site states that, though it is for-profit, the company donates more than $900,000 to organizations including schools, churches, food banks and humane societies.

The company’s co-founders, Matthew Wallander and Janice Bostic, are members of the Teachers’ Group, which the company’s letter describes as “a secular humanistic community of people working around the world mainly on humanitarian projects.”

The group runs a number of development aid projects through organizations such as Humana People-to-People as well as a string of Tvind schools in Denmark, where officials have called it a cult.

Similar red or yellow donation bins have been appearing across the country and linked to either of these groups, according to national news articles.

Based on what he knows at this point, Mayor Anderson said he’s going to encourage area businesses with the bins on their property to get rid of them.

One such red box at the city’s sanitation recycling center will be removed soon, he said.

“That’s the only one we can control,” he said.

Whitney Pipkin can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at .