The rescued flags were small (12" x 8") on sticks (the type waved at rallies).

A few days after the convention was over a vendor noticed a pile of hefty lawn bags filled with flags next to a dumpster half full of them, gathered them up and turned them over the the local McCain campaign to use at the colorado springs rally. Many of the bagged flags were neatly bundled (from the factory) but the dumpstered flags were not.

I'll give the DNC the benefit of the doubt and surmise that they didn't intend to have them end up in a landfill. Calling them trashed flags is a bit harsh, more likely they were just left for Invesco field maintenance to deal with.

After the rally in the springs, there were boy scouts on hand to accept the leftovers and flags that people didn't want to take home. The scouts then visited local and regional cemetaries and placed them at the graves of vets.

The McCain campaign crew seized the opportunity to embarrass the Obama over their loose regard for the flag. The DNC organizers claim that they were supposed to go to storage but someone on their crew dropped the ball and left them at Invesco.

Proper care and disposal of the flag is a touchy subject for many Americans. I would think that any presidential campaign would be sensitive enough in that regard to take great care to see that appropriate guidelines would be followed.