Thread: What happens to the items that get confiscated at the airport?

Was at JHB International recently and had some toiletries confiscated because they exceeded the liquid allowance in hand baggage. The security person ditched it in a wheelie bin thing. Surely these items could go to an homeless shelters or something, or does that just complicate things. Seems such a waste - just glad my after-shave wasn't confiscated as well!

Those things tend to get destroyed. After all, the contorted reasoning of the security nazis is that each and everyone of those items may very well be part of a liquid bomb and would make it too dangerous even to hand out homeless.

They can provide a fringe benefit to security personnel, if they are corrupt (and given the type of people usually recruited for these jobs, corruption is not unusual).

If everyone is honest, the items may be destroyed or sold at auction. Passengers may also have the option of requiring that the items be kept and sent to them, in some cases.

Some items are destroyed and some items are donated to non-profit groups. The TSA states that there is a zero tolerance policy if an agent "pockets" a confiscated item and anyone who violates the policy will be terminated. Here's the TSA blog about what they do with items that are confiscated:
http://blog.tsa.gov/2009/09/what-happens-to-your-prohibited-items.html