Swede, the same problem exists in the US. Some donations are just junk, and it costs the charities money to dispose of the junk.
The Salvation Army in my area will come to your house to pick up large items like furniture, but they inspect each piece and if it is at all damaged, they simply won't take it. They get enough donations of good furniture that it is not worth their time and energy to take something that can't be sold until it is fixed.
A friend who works at a charitable thrift shop told me that after our city started charging people for trash pick-up of large items like furniture or washing machines, more and more of this type of thing got donated. People didn't want to pay the fee for the trash pick-up, and couldn't or wouldn't haul it to the transfer station and pay the fee there.
Same with electronics--in many areas of the US, you can't simply throw an old computer or TV in the trash. There's a fee. So more and more electronics are being donated to charities, even if they don't work or are completely outdated. It's not really a donation. People are using the charities as free trash disposal, not realizing that it will cost the charity to dispose of the item.
Another story--a town I used to live in stopped all bulky waste pick-up. This meant if you had something large, like an old stove or washing machine, to get rid of, you had to figure out how to get it to the transfer station, and pay $25 to dump it off. Whereas before, you could haul it out to the curb and the town would pick it up for free.
So a lot of people started dumping their old appliances out back of an appliance store in town. The store complained to the police, because the store, while it offered free disposal of your old appliance if you bought a new one, couldn't afford to dispose of all the appliances that were dumped off in the middle of the night. It was a bit odd, seeing the police staking out the rear of the shopping center, on high alert for refrigerator dumpers.
