New Year Op-Shop ‘Rubbish’ Donations Cost Millions
6 January 2015 at 8:59 am
Australia’s charity recyclers stand to lose millions of dollars this holiday season disposing of rubbish and unusable “donations”, according to the National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations (NACRO).
Charity op shops have already appealed to householders to make appropriate donations of secondhand goods direct to the opportunity shops over the holiday season.
The appeal from NACRO comes as thousands of volunteers brace themselves for the return to op shops after the Christmas break.
“Sadly, this time of year is heartbreaking for the volunteers who return after the break to be faced with sorting through piles of dirty, broken household rubbish dumped amongst the donations,” NACRO Chief Executive Officer, Kerryn Caulfield, said.
“Christmas is a hard time of year for many Australian families struggling with poverty, so donations of good quality goods are needed by the charities to raise funds so they can deliver their services.
“But giving unusable or broken goods to a charity bin or op shop is not a donation – it is dumping waste and the cost of disposal of this rubbish takes away funds needed for the charities’ community programs.”
NACRO said Australia’s charity recyclers stand to lose millions of dollars disposing of rubbish and unusable “donations” – money that should be going to help others.
Caulfield said the assumption that tipping is free to charities is wrong in all States.
“Charities are exempt from some fees but it is not 100 per cent free and then there are the add on costs of removal and transport,” she said.
“I am aware of a small local opp shop that had 15 mattresses dumped on its doorstep on the weekend. The tip fee is $30 per mattress plus the cost of staff and transport to remove the unusable items.
“We hope that by educating people on how to make their donation count we can eliminate that drain on charity resources and the volunteers and staff who have the unpleasant job of dealing with the rubbish.”
She said the Government subsidies such as the one in Victoria covers only a small proportion of the costs to charities to manage illegal dumping.
