Volunteers fed up with dumping

Salvation Army Caboolture store manager Neil Tomkins cleans up the bins after they have been overloaded with garments and small goods. Photo Vicki Wood / Caboolture News

Vicki Wood/SCA100112rubbish

WHILE generous donations are happily accepted by community groups across the region, the one thing they aren't so pleased with is the donations that come in the form of rubbish.

Busy Fingers on Bribie Island are grateful for the many donations they receive to support charity and community associations on the island. However staff and management at the organisation are disheartened by being used as a dumping site for broken furniture and household and kitchen rubbish - items which can be put in the bin or taken directly to the dump at Ningi.

"Often our donation bins have kitchen waste dumped in them and it leaks through to the clothing, shoes, books and toys that have already been deposited," manager Sharon Fisher said. "All of these items have to be thrown away and a volunteer has the disgusting job of trying to clean out the bins. Our volunteers work hard for the community and this is just not acceptable."

Due to the continual dumping of rubbish Busy Fingers have had to install a sophisticated security system to help identify those responsible.

The Salvation Army in Caboolture also receive unwanted rubbish items as donations, a situation which has lessened over time.

Caboolture store manager Neil Tomkins said they had noticed a decrease in rubbish when council allowed rubbish to be taken to the dump for free.

"We still receive the odd item here and there including mattresses with stains, old lounges that are falling apart and cupboards that are no good to anyone," Mr Tomkins said. "We become the last stop before the tip and it's not right."

Mr Tomkins said with the rubbish piled in or around charity bins, it could reach the point where they would have to remove them.

"We hope we don't have to go down that path," he said. "We're open to any donation as long as it's in good condition and we encourage those dropping resalable items off to our store on the corner of Dux and Lower King St - if bins are full, please place items under cover around the corner."

On a different note Vinnies Morayfield centre co-ordinator Fiona Witchard said they had removed charity bins because of the rubbish problem and the quality of donations had improved.

"We found that rubbish was dumped and even set fire to, which caused no end of problems," Ms Witchard said.

"We encourage people to come to us in working hours to make donations. We're open Monday-Friday 8.30am-3.30pm at Morayfield and 9am-2.30pm Monday to Friday at Burpengary."

Ms Witchard said although the bins were no longer used they still had the problem of donations and rubbish being left outside the store. "It's extremely disheartening for our volunteers because when donations are left outside, they're unprotected and in most cases we can't use them," she said.

Vinnies are asking people to consider what they are giving to charities: will your donation help someone in need, or are you simply trying to avoid having to take stuff to the dump?