By KATH GANNAWAY
DUMPING is costing Healesville opportunity shop thousands of dollars each year.
But that’s not the worst of it.
The disgusting rubbish that Healesville Salvation Army volunteers have had to sort through in the past few months is incomprehensible.
“It goes beyond even household rubbish,” said Maureen Garlick, who with husband Bluey shifts ute-loads of rubbish on a weekly basis from the Healesville shop, and the bin next to the Salvation Army Hall in Harker Street.
It’s not unusual to see soiled nappies in rubbish bags dumped in the bush, but no-one would expect to find that – and worse – in bags left under the guise of helping charity organisations raise funds for their communities.
“Sometime you open a bag of clothes and it just reeks. We can’t use it and we have to get rid of it,” Maureen said.
Signs at local opportunity shops advising people not to leave goods, or not to leave specific items such as electrical goods and furniture, are ignored as an easy and cheap way to dispose of unwanted goods.
Healesville Salvation Army Officer, Sarah Eldridge, says it’s a problem that all thrift shops have to deal with and added that money paid out to dispose of rubbish and unsaleable items is money that is not available to spend in the local community.
Elaine Dossor, co-ordinator of the Lions Den Opportunity Shop in Healesville said they did tip runs at least once a fortnight.
“We do a lot of burn-offs when you’re allowed to … if it burns, we’ll burn it, but basically anything we have to pay for impacts on the community,” she said.
Both organisations get 12 tip vouchers each year, but say they go nowhere near covering the amount of rubbish they have to dispose of.
Both women agree that what is trash and what is treasure can be subjective.
“If it’s not something you and your loved ones would buy, don’t donate it, but having said that, we can still make money from something like bedding where perhaps the elastic has gone for rags,” Sarah Eldridge said.
Jeans with tears and holes are borderline acceptable … if they’re trendy tears!
“You see things come in that you think would never sell, and they’re the first things to go, but that’s not rubbish,” she said.
“Volunteers give their time in these shops to help others … they deserve better than having to deal with disgusting rubbish.”
