If you drive past a charity bin – or a charity shopfront like the Salvation Army or Vinnies after closing hours, it’s likely you’ll see a few overflowing bags, and possibly a variety of electrical goods like fans and heaters (I’ve even seen a dishwasher before!) cluttering up the area next to the bin, or the entry way to the store.
These stores all have signs asking people to not leave donations outside when the store is closed, and the bins ask people not to leave donations if the bin is full. But, still people persist.
While I think it is fantastic that we have so many charitable people in our communities, leaving donations lying around like this causes a few problems. It can lead to looting, items spilling onto the road causing traffic problems, and generally makes the surrounding area look messy and dirty.
It makes me wonder, do people just not see the signs or choose to ignore them when they do, or are people too lazy to return when the shop is opened, or to drive to another charity bin. When I’m donating items to charity, I actually want them to turn up at the charity – not scattered across the road or for someone to score them for free by scavenging. I actually saw two people — early to mid-twenties, nicely presented and what not — tearing into bags left next to the charity bins at Lyneham shops picking out what they wanted and leaving the remainder across the footpath.
Then there’s the whole issue of people using charity bins and shopfronts as a substitute for the tip. Dumping their crap, that can’t be reused or sold, because they can’t be bothered to drive to the tip or to pay for the waste charge.
The ACT Government introduced a Code of Practice for the Management of Charity Bins on Public Land in April 2014. The Code aims to achieve a balance between the bins being used for receiving donations, and mitigating against illegal dumping. The Code consolidated the placement of bins to 14 locations from 50.
There’s now less places for people to dump their junk (as well as less places for people to leave genuine donations), but people still manage it. The op-shop at Kingston closed down months ago yet people are still leaving stuff out the front.
When this happens at a charity shopfront, the charity has to fork out the waste charge at the tip. The Salvation Army reported that in 2013, over $6 million of their funding was spent on waste charges, getting rid of other people’s junk. This is disgraceful. Someone else has palmed off their unusuable junk to the charity and is making it the charity’s responsibility to dispose of it. Incredibly uncharitable and it’s essentially taking funds from these organisations; funds that are needed elsewhere and used to actually help people in need.
If you’re one of the people who might do a sneaky night-time drop off of unusable items to a charity shopfront or donation bin: think twice about it. It would cost you less than $30 to drop off a few items at the tip, but it’s costing our charities a lot more.
Loading ...
