Came back into Heathrow from Belgrade the other day ( and had the usual obligatory 10 minute wait as they only had 2 security teams going )
The fellow in front of me handed an unopened litre bottle of Jack Daniels over to the security man and told him he could have it - "Take it home with you" he said! The security man was quite apologetic that he had to take it and said it would have to go in the bin - unfortunately.
I was just wondering - do the unopened bottles end up in skips? I know it would probably would be a sackable offence for a worker to take anything home with them, but maybe it could be raffled for charity?

In Dublin recently they auctioned off for charity goods that had been confiscated from passengers intending to board. I wondered who would be liable if somebody bought explosive materials in a re-sealed whiskey bottle.

The traditional answer for things confiscated by HM Customs has been the Queen's Pipe - once a physical object, now an outsourced business process, but in either case a bonfire.

Using that for security confiscations though sounds even dodgier than Padraig's charity auction. At least only the boozer and his chums suffer if they drink a bottle of Bin 42 that's really Bin Laden's Explosive Special.

But chucking it into a furnace could presumably take half Slough out at the same time.

On our way out of Edinburgh Airport in October they had a giant plexiglass bin setup at the front of the screening line. It was half-full of knives, silverware, scissors, nail files, and liquids of all kinds, including tubes of toothpaste, bottles of shampoo, hand creams, etc.
There was a slot at the top to put things in it if youd forgotten to check them. Then while we were in line one of the security people walked over with a small plastic bin full of "illegal" liquids/objects, and began putting them into the slot.

It just occurred to me while reading this thread...If they are confiscatng all these little bottles and tubes-because they might be explosives-and putting them into bins-what if some of them are actually explosives?-and they're leaving them in the bins-dont we have the makings of one helluva explosion?

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!
What have I started!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know what happens to all the knives, files and other confiscated items? You would think that if they can't get back to their natural owners maybe they could go to a charity or be sold and given to a needy organization? Well no, the airport specifically DFW I'm speaking of, gives all the items to companies that sells them and pockets the profits. They also showed employees of that company rummaging thru boxes of our confiscated items and taking what they wanted.

That just doesn't seem right to me.

That is outragious!

So two bottles of Bin Laden Special would possibly take out the whole of Slough?

....hmmm interesting Maths facts