Sunbury Salvos store carpark left looking like rubbish dump

DUMPERS and scavengers are leaving this Salvos store looking like a tip every weekend. And staff are pleading for it to stop.

The Sunbury Salvos store on a Monday morning. Picture: Leanne Ward

DUMPERS and scavengers are leaving the Sunbury Salvos store carpark resembling a tip each weekend.

Rubbish and donated goods are strewn around the front of the Horne St store, forcing the Salvos to roster on extra staff on Mondays to clean the mess. Acting store manager Leanne Ward said goods were also dumped on weeknights.

“We fill three skips every day and a crusher truck comes twice a week to take larger items like broken furniture,” she said.

Ms Ward said she couldn’t estimate the cost to her store but, nationally, dumping hits Salvos stores for $6 million a year.

She said good-hearted people who donated goods after hours unwittingly encouraged illegal dumpers and scavengers who scattered goods as they rifled through donations.

Dumped items included household garbage, food scraps, car parts, broken furniture and demolition material, Ms Ward said.

“Sunbury is a wonderful giving community and we get enough donations to help other stores with stock, but we need donations during business hours,” Ms Ward said. “We value donations and can’t run a business without them, but we can’t have donations after hours.”

Ms Ward said the store helped fund the Salvation Army’s homeless, domestic and family violence, addiction and unemployment programs.

Leanne Ward, acting store manager of Sunbury Salvos, is asking people to donate during business hours. Picture: Kylie Else

Hume Council director of sustainable infrastructure and services, Peter Waite, said the council worked closely with the store to minimise dumping, including installing signs warning it was illegal.

“There is no excuse for illegally dumping rubbish,” he said.

“Hume City Council makes it easy for households to dispose of their unwanted goods if they are unable to be donated to charity.”

Residents had kerbside waste and recycling collections, a free hard rubbish collection and could dispose of household items for free at the Sunbury Resource Recovery Centre, Mr Waite said.

He said that in 2016, the council had 46 reports of illegally dumped rubbish in Sunbury.

Anyone who has information about rubbish that has been illegally dumped in Hume should call 1300 HUME CLEAN or report it through the Hume app.