What happens to all those swiss army knives?

Passengers' abandoned booty: How it shakes out Some items are trashed, others are treasured
By Janet Kornblum
USA TODAY


Shredded, recycled, donated, mailed or auctioned on eBay.

That's what happens to all those Swiss Army knives and pointed-tip scissors that travelers ''surrender'' at airport security checkpoints. They can end up anywhere from the belly of a car shredder to a village in Ghana, West Africa.

Ever since stepped-up security measures went into effect after Sept. 11, airports have been confiscating items deemed dangerous, items that travelers once could carry onto planes, such as pocketknives, box cutters and scissors.

When the Transportation Security Administration put its own federal screeners in place by Nov. 19, it suddenly had to start dealing with the tons of stuff that errant fliers leave at checkpoints every day. The agency would rather people simply leave those goods home, says TSA's Robert Johnson.

But not all passengers do. And once caught with banned booty, they have few choices. They can return to the check-in counter and place their items in their checked luggage. They can store them in their cars, time allowing. They can mail them, if there's an airport postal facility. Or, at a handful of airports, they can check goods with Travelex, a company that specializes in foreign currency exchange. Travelex offers check-in services at a few branches, where people can store items for a charge and pick them up on their return. Those branches and other companies also will mail items for passengers for a fee.

But most people end up abandoning their possessions, as did Ken Rona, a management consultant from Washington, D.C. He simply forgot about the little Swiss Army knife on his key chain until security officials found it.

''They told me I could throw it away or leave it there,'' he says. ''I was actually very bitter about that. The blade was half the size of my pinky.''

What happened to that knife -- and tons of other seized possessions across the USA?

Regulations prevent the TSA from profiting from abandoned goods. But the way the agency disposes of them varies from airport to airport and is up to the local TSA administrator. The administrator chooses a government-approved entity -- ranging from a state surplus association to a commercial disposal company -- to handle the goods. But with policies constantly evolving, and with governmental agencies involved, abandoned items can end up almost anywhere. For example:

* Some airports send goods to disposal companies, where they're crushed or put through a car shredder, then sold as scrap metal.

* Some still haven't decided what to do with the goods. In Grand Rapids, Mich., there are ''three or four huge tubs'' that just sit in the airport's basement while the airport decides their fate, says spokesman Bruce Schedlbauer.

* Others turn the stuff into surplus property. Bill Logan, the facilities management director for Brazoria, Texas, south of Houston, recently purchased 11 pounds of scissors and other small tools from the Federal Surplus Property Program in Texas. Items came from the Houston airport. ''It's good for the taxpayers,'' he says. ''If I could buy 10 pounds of scissors for $5.50, that's better than buying them for $5 each.'' The scissors go to government employees as office supplies.

Government offices aren't the only ones benefiting from passenger mistakes.

If you've relinquished your knife at the airport in Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Santa Ana or Ontario (Calif.) or Portland, Ore., you might see it being sold on eBay from sellers CaliforniaGold2000 or OregonTrail2000. Those are names that the state surplus programs use to sell all sorts of surplus goods.

In both states, the money made from the auctions is funneled back into the surplus programs, say spokespeople from each state.

Some individuals are taking a more creative approach.

Michael Ravnitzky, a journalist from Silver Spring, Md., plans to donate scissors he bought on eBay to schoolchildren in the village of Gbefi in Ghana.

Jerry Jordan, who owns the outdoor-goods store Wilderness Exchange in Berkeley, Calif., buys Swiss Army knives online in bulk and resells them in his store for $3.99 and $9.99, depending on size.

When he gets a knife with an engraved name, he'll look in the phone book to see if he can find the owner. So far, he hasn't.

He's not exactly going to retire from the extra income, but he's glad that the knives at least are being put to use.

''It's sad that so many of them are being scrapped,'' he says. ''To throw away a perfectly good product is a total waste.''

Rona feels the same way. He has lost his knife, but it bothers him to think of it getting crushed and scrapped.

''I would actually feel better if somebody was carrying it,'' he says.