Sallies worker Sue Chadwick with some of the signs people have been ignoring. Photo/Andrew Warner
Sallies worker Sue Chadwick with some of the signs people have been ignoring. Photo/Andrew Warner
SIGNED: Sallies worker Sue Chadwick with some of the signs people have been ignoring. PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER 281217aw08bop.JPG
Charity op shops return from Christmas break to enormous piles of donations - sounds like a nice story about generous festive giving, right?
Not really.
Local leaders of the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul Society say most donated goods are unsellable - stained, broken, obsolete or just plain rubbish.
Bags and bags of it were piled outside the organisation's shops while staff and volunteers were enjoying a Christmas break.
It is not a problem unique to the holidays - though the extra closed days do not help - and it costs them tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Major Heather Kopu, who leads Tauranga's Salvation Army operations, said in spite of ample signage asking people not to leave donated goods over the Christmas break, they returned to huge piles of stuff.
The mound that greeted Salvation Army volunteers on Cameron Rd after the Christmas break. Photo/supplied
People leaving poor quality goods was one of their two biggest, and costliest, problems, Kopu said.
"We have to budget tens of thousands of dollars a year simply to dump that rubbish."
The other biggie was that quality donations left outside closed stores would often be picked through by "scavengers". They would take the best stuff and scatter the rest.
"Scavengers feel they have a right to anything left outside. And if it rains overnight the goods can be ruined. Please, please, please don't leave goods outside the shops."
Lorna Edlin of the St Vincent de Paul Society was also sick of people treating op shops "like rubbish tips".
She says the Vinnies "never say no" to donations but "90 per cent" is not fit to be sold.
They recycle everything they can - right down to wires from broken electronics - but it created a lot of work for the mostly elderly volunteers and the charity still had to spend hundreds in dump fees most months.
They could dump two tonnes a year for free, she said.
"We use that up within the first two months."
January was the busiest season for donations - especially towards the end of the month as families had clean-outs before school started.
Here are a few tips for making thoughtful op shop donations:
• Select items that are clean, usable and resellable • Drop goods off inside business hours • Can't get there in time? Call and see if they do home pick-ups • Shops have limited storage and may appreciate a call in advance so they can highlight items they can't take - eg, winter clothes in summer • Avoid leaving goods outside closed shops and put rubbish in your own bin
