Rubbish dumping at Salvos op shops costs charity $6 million a year to clean up

LAZY rubbish dumpers leaving junk littered outside Salvos op shops are costing the charity more than $6 million a year and leading to calls for “barbed wire around stores”.

Salvos staff Bronwyn Dyer and Jill Myers, pictured in 2013 during their regular Monday-morning clean up. Little has changed over the years.

RUBBISH dumped outside Salvos stores after hours is costing the charity more than $6 million a year to clear.

The figure comes as the Salvos store in Whitehorse Rd, Balwyn was last week inundated with so much junk from the previous weekend that the footpath was blocked.

And it has clearly been an ongoing issue for years with Leader having previously photographed staff at the store in 2013 during their regular Monday morning clean-up.

The piles of “donated” goods means staff, mostly volunteers, have to sort through piles of rubbish before being able to start their day’s work.

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Local resident Zoe said she was horrified when she drove past the store on Monday morning last week.

“It sprawled out almost onto the kerb, it was the worst I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“It happens every Monday, it’s almost got to the stage where they need to build barbed wire around the store.

“And you just need to look at any charity bin throughout the area, they are just dumping grounds for people’s rubbish.

“You’re not a do gooder, all you’re doing is getting rid of your junk.”

Salvos Stores marketing manager Aife O’Loughlin said it was not just an aesthetic issue for staff to deal with, but also potentially dangerous.

“Out of hours donations can cause some issues for our store teams and the community in which our store is based, as they are often damaged or stolen overnight and the remaining items are often strewn across the footpaths,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

“Donations left out of hours are often unsaleable the next day, due to damage caused overnight by the weather or by people rummaging through the bags of goods.”

Ms O’Loughlin said often, donations simply had to be thrown out and it was community programs that were then cut in order to pay for the clean-up.

“We seek to recycle everything we possibly can and will place these in a variety of different recycling streams,” she said.

“There are some items, unfortunately, that just cannot be recycled and the disposal of these goods cost Salvos Stores in excess of $6 million nationally each year.”

Boroondara Council director of city planning John Luppino said penalties for dumping unwanted goods on footpaths ranged from fines of $311 up to $15,000 and a possible one month in prison.

“People should visit one of the 10 designated charity bin locations across the city to donate clothing to charities,” Mr Luppino said.

“The charity bins are accessible 24 hours a day and are conveniently located in popular shopping strips across the city.”

Ms O’Loughlin said if residents were unable to bring donated goods into stores during opening hours, they could ring 13 72 58 to organise a home collection.