SA op-shop volunteers forced to put urine, bloodstained ‘donations’ in their own bins as dumping hits new lows

Volunteers at SA charities are being forced to fill their own household bins with revolting clothing as rubbish dumped outside op-shops reaches appalling new lows.

Wildlife Welfare Organisation Fundraising Op Shop Volunteers have been taking rubbish home for their personal bins as the charity shop has been overflowing with rubbish dumped. Pictured is manager Pat Fuidge with some of the unwanted items. Picture: Dean Martin

Dirty nappies and garbage are being dumped as “donations” at charity op shops leaving volunteers the distasteful task of putting the waste in their own household bins.

Goolwa’s Anglican Church op shop says it is spending hundreds of dollars a month to dispose of the rubbish while Pat Fuidge, manager of the Wildlife Welfare op shops in Victor Harbor and Goolwa, said volunteers are taking trash to the tip — using money that would otherwise go towards caring for injured wildlife.

Wildlife Welfare Organisation Fundraising Op Shop Volunteers have been taking rubbish home for their personal bins as the charity shop has been overflowing with rubbish dumped. Picture: Dean Martin

Carol Stoddart, a volunteer at Wildlife Welfare at Victor Harbor, made a blunt appeal on Facebook saying: “Please don’t donate urine and blood stained clothing. It’s horrible.

“As “vollies,” we are now taking other people’s trash to our own personal bins.”

Ms Stoddart said the op shop’s bins were already “filled to the hilt.”

Unwanted bags of “donations” dumped outside the Wildlife Welfare Op Shop in Goolwa over the Christmas and New Year break, while the shop was closed. Photo: Wildlife Welfare Fundraising Shops – Goolwa and Victor Harbor, Facebook

Manager Pat Fuidge and some of the unwanted items. Picture: Dean Martin

“Please, please - stop leaving stuff at our shop while we are closed,” a separate Facebook plea posted by the op shop on Wednesday said. “It’s so not fair. Our volunteers now have to deal with all this tomorrow - most of which will probably go in the bins.”

The Facebook post included photos showing several full garbage bags at the Goolwa shopfront which had unusable torn clothing and soiled sheets left outside the shops while they were closed over the Christmas-New Year period.

At the nearby Goolwa Anglican Church op shop, church warden Vicki Plummer said she spends nearly $150 per week taking unsaleable dumped items at the tip.

She said these include dirty nappies, dirty clothes, used mattresses, chairs with broken legs and other items that were clearly rubbish.

She said the money would otherwise fund a pantry program that feeds struggling community members.

Some op shops have installed temporary fencing around stores. Picture: Dean Martin

Some op shops in the state have taken extreme — and expensive — measures to prevent people from dropping off unwelcome donations, like the Bridgewater CFS Op Shop’s installation of temporary fencing around the store during their Christmas and New Year closure.

“We hire fencing every year … to make it really clear that we can’t accept donations, and the community is really good at respecting that,” Bridgewater CFS captain Dave Turner said.

Ginny Phillips, manager of Norwood’s Quaker Op Shop, said her shop permanently removed the donation bin in December due to garbage donations.

The St Vincent de Paul Society, meanwhile, had to hire trucks and people on Monday to clean up mounds of donations left outside their Mt Barker op shop.

Vinnies SA chief executive Evelyn O’Loughlin said it cost the charity tens of thousands of dollars to clean up and dispose of the unusable donations every year.

Charities across the country are not exempt from dumping fees but unlike other states, those in South Australia don’t receive a full rebate from the government – something that Ms O’Loughlin said they were lobbying to change.

Originally published as SA op-shop volunteers forced to put urine, bloodstained ‘donations’ in their own bins as dumping hits new lows