Know-It-All What Happens to Stuff That Gets Surrendered at the Airport?

Nothing can start a trip off on the wrong foot like having one of your travel essentials get confiscated by airport security. No matter how many times you fly, there’s always going to be that one trip where you accidentally toss the full-size sunscreen into your carry-on, or forget to remove your biathlon rifle. After all, when you’re packing your bag, you’re not thinking about the security lineup; you’re thinking about all the fun you’re going to have on the beaches of Maui with your lithium battery collection.

If you’re in doubt about what you’re allowed to bring on a plane from Vancouver these days, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has a handy alphabetical guide. Pagers and portable CD players are absolutely welcome, for instance, so time travellers from the 1990s can rest easy as they head to their gate. Time travellers from the 1790s, though, will not be as happy: archery arrows are not welcome in your carry-on luggage.

You don’t necessarily have to surrender your beloved pocket-knife or treasured 351-millilitre container of powdered detergent to security, of course. If you’ve got time, you can mail it home, double back to check-in to check the bag or pass it off to a non-travelling friend or the will-they-won’t-they love interest who chased you through the airport to finally confess his affection.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority also offers the option of “turning back from the screening checkpoint and not boarding your flight,” which seems like a dramatic reaction to packing too much shampoo, but maybe if it was a sentimental shampoo (inherited from a beloved late grandmother with great hair?) or you were embarking on a  particularly boring trip (funeral for a dullard late grandmother with flat hair?) I can see how you might be tempted to abandon (air)ship.

But if you’re forced by circumstance to give up your most liquid and/or most violent belongings, don’t be too sad: they’re going to a better place.

You might be shocked to learn that the YVR agents don’t get first dibs on all the tantalizing used aerosol deodorants or gun-shaped belt buckles that are abandoned at the security gate each day. Years ago, there was a nearby thrift store that specifically sold these airport leftovers, but today, surrendered goods and anything else that’s been accidentally left behind at the airport are donated to community partners like the Developmental Disabilities Association, the BC Technology for Learning Society and the Third World Eye Care Society. YVR’s Pharmasave safely disposes of any meds, and specialty items like forgotten CPAP machines are donated to appropriate charity partners. (Though perhaps these sorts of left-behind goods should inspire a different nonprofit organization: the Society for Sleep Apnea Sufferers Who Forget They Have Sleep Apnea.)

So, yes, you’ve had to say goodbye to your favourite scuba knife, but your loss will become a gain for someone else. Now go get on that plane and use the flight time not to dwell on what was left behind, but to consider what you’re going to say at flat-haired grandma’s service.