Don’t rubbish us, volunteers plead

By Paul Dunlop
CHARITY store volunteers last week appealed to residents to stop treating the shops as rubbish dumps.
Household items and clothing best suited for the tip have piled up in alarming quantities outside Pakenham opportunity shops over the past couple of weeks.
Broken and dirty items, old pillows, mattresses and electrical items, none of which can be sold, have been left for charity shop staff to sort through and dispose of.
Pakenham Opportunity Shop president Barbara Cook said repeated pleas to the public not to dump unsaleable goods at the shop appeared to have been ignored.
Volunteers emphasised that they valued residents’ donations but pleaded with people not to use the shops as a dumping ground.
Mrs Cook said time and money were being wasted sorting through piles of goods that were mostly rubbish and taking them to the tip.
The Station Street shop was not due to reopen after the Christmas break until this week but volunteers had to go back to work early to cope with the piles of items dumped by residents.
“It’s dreadful. Mattresses cost $20 each to take to the tip. We couldn’t even get inside the door there was so much stuff,” she said.
Mrs Cook said people’s generosity was greatly appreciated, but they should not leave at the op shop anything that they would not wear or use themselves.
“Clothes splattered with paint or broken toys they’re no good to people. It’s frustrating, a lot of stuff gets dumped at night. I’m sure many people mean well but it is really of no use to anyone and it costs us money to dispose of.”
The Salvation Army’s Salvo Store manager, Karen Ermolov said the Michael Street depot was overrun with bags of goods over the festive season.
Staff worked on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and Mrs Ermolov was on deck on New Year’s Day to help clear through the piles of clothing, furniture and other items.
“In the last week, we’ve taken four truckloads to the rubbish tip,” she said.
“There’s been a lot of big stuff, broken furniture, torn couches. We get our fair share during the year but it increases 10fold at this time of year.”
Mrs Ermolov said bags dumped at night were often rummaged through by other people when the shop was shut, leaving their contents scattered around the front of the shop for staff to deal with in the morning.
“Our message is for people firstly not to use us as a dumping ground but also to please bring donations during our business hours, which are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.”