PORTLAND – Would-be good hearts leaving everything from soiled mattresses to tattered clothing at Goodwill drop locations have left the agency with climbing trash bills and forced it to reduce its unattended drop locations.

Goodwill Industries of New England spends hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to dispose of refuse. That is money that could be better spent on community programs, said Robert Frederick, collection and transportation manager.

“Ninety-five percent of the donors are great and give great stuff,” he said. “But the other 5 percent we always joke and call the evil 5 percent.”

In 2002, Goodwill’s trash bill had shot to $890,000. With less trash, Frederick projects this year’s tab will amount to about $430,000. Still, another 15 percent to 20 percent off the bill wouldn’t hurt, he said.

The change is only partly due to fewer drop locations. Goodwill last year started a recycling campaign to turn in magazines, dented iron skillets and chipped glassware for a profit of several thousand dollars.

Frederick also plans to testify in the coming weeks on a legislative bill that would force computer manufacturers to retrieve old monitors from Maine, and recycle them so toxins such as lead aren’t released into the environment.

The bill’s supporters say Goodwill, which receives hundreds of broken monitors each year, and other charitable organizations stand to benefit immensely.

“If the public knows what to do with their computer at the end of its life, they wouldn’t be trying to shove them onto Goodwill drop-off boxes,” said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Already, the initiatives have dramatically lowered Goodwill’s trash bill, which has become more alarming each year.

Goodwill runs employment services, as well as more than a dozen group homes and day treatment centers for people who are mentally disabled, deaf or both.

Any trash disposal savings ultimately helps the 6,000 people Goodwill serves annually, said spokeswoman Jean Salce.

Several thousand dollars might seem like a drop in Goodwill’s $40 million budget. But Salce said the money represents potential capital improvements such as paving a driveway or buying new furniture for those who truly need it.

“Or maybe we could offer a service that we didn’t offer before,” she said.