Berwick Village op shop receives truck load of unsellable items over Christmas

The operator of Berwick op shop is asking the public to “think about what they’re donating”, after its store was inundated with unsellable items post-Christmas.

Berwick Village op-shop has called out community members caught on CCTV allegedly dumping their household rubbish into the store’s skip bin. Image: supplied

Christmas is the giving season, but some people are giving far too much, as operators of opportunity shops in Melbourne’s southeast urge communities to think about the items they are dropping off for ‘donation’.

Some stores have seen an 80 per cent increase in supply over the holiday period, as people are looking to declutter their homes in the post-Christmas holidays.

Berwick Opportunity Shop president Margaret Ruse said the Berwick Village store had seen a large increase in unsellable items.

“Christmas and New Year sees lots of families replacing their old toys and products with new ones, but unfortunately we are receiving a lot of broken items that we are unable to sell,” Ms Ruse said.

“We do get some fantastic stuff in and we really appreciate what we get, but at this time of year if people can hold off until it quiets down, that would really help us.”

Consumer law standards upholds a strict quality criteria of what can be resold, making donated damaged items a challenge for op-shops to deal with.

Berwick Village op-shop asks community to rethink some of their donations, as people donate unusable and unsellable items, including cots, old doors and other large items. Image: supplied

Despite the public messaging, Ms Ruse said she expects the store to continue experiencing increased supply of donations for at least another month, with most items being “more suitable” for hard rubbish collections.

“Unfortunately, despite clear signage saying not to donate larger items or baby goods, they are still donated,” she said.

“We’ve even seen people putting their old doors next to the skip. It’s ridiculous.”

The store fills a four cubic metre skip bin three times a week with unsellable items, an expensive practice for the volunteer-run shop.

“We probably spend about $12,000 a year disposing of rubbish we receive … It’s our biggest cost at the shop and it’s money that could be going back into the community,” Ms Ruse said.

The skip bin in itself poses an unique issue for the Berwick opportunity shop, as CCTV footage catches the public also disposing of their rubbish in the bin.

Berwick Village op-shop has called out community members caught on CCTV allegedly dumping their household rubbish into the store’s skip bin, which is paid for by the volunteer-run shop. Image: supplied

A public call out has urged culprits to stop incorrectly disposing of their rubbish.

“Despite this couple being told not to put their five bags of household/domestic rubbish in our skip, as soon as our volunteer was out of sight, they dumped it,” a Facebook post read.

“This is just an example of what we have to contend with. It is absolutely disgusting and despicable.”

“Please get rid of your domestic rubbish in the correct way.”

Berwick Village op-shop asks community to rethink some of their donations, as people donate unusable and unsellable items, including cots, old doors and other large items. Image: supplied

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