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Dumped rubbish hits welfare agency

Posted on January 6, 2010, 9:09am and updated on January 7, 2010 at 8:23 am

The Mount Gambier Salvation Store has recorded a spike in rubbish being dumped on its doorstep since Christmas and is being forced to spend up to $1500 per month removing “filthy” junk.

The store, which raises money for the welfare agency, is now considered the worst Salvation retail shop in regional SA for people dumping rubbish and unwanted electrical items.

It is understood the $20 fee for electrical items at the Mount Gambier Waste Transfer Centre is fuelling the problem, along with people not wanting to pay general dump fees.

Every morning staff are forced to clear away piles of dirty and broken items at the front of the store on Caldwell Street, which is left strewn and ripped open.

A ute load of rubbish, including broken furniture and dirty rags, is often taken away from the site each day.

The problem escalates every Monday morning, following people leaving mountainous piles of rubbish over the weekend.

Salvation Army stores area manager Ian Smith said the problem in Mount Gambier was increasing, particularly with the number of electrical items being discarded.

He said the problem was “unique” to Mount Gambier because of the $20 cost to dump large electrical items such as televisions at the city’s waste transfer centre.

Mr Smith said it cost people up to $1 per kilogram to leave fridges at the dump.

“This is impacting on the Salvation Army’s bottom line,” said Mr Smith, who explained the problem diverted money away from key welfare services.

Describing the situation as “sad”, he said the dumping of rubbish had always been a problem in Mount Gambier, but had escalated to record highs in 2009.

He said the hike in the rubbish dumping could be related to global economic crisis.

“People even dump filthy household rubbish, which is often spread across the carpark,” Mr Smith said.

He said the Salvation Army had begun talking with councils in Adelaide to try and curb the problem, but a solution had yet to be found in Mount Gambier.

“We try to catch people out, but prosecution is not easy,” Mr Smith said.

“We have put up special signs at the Mount Gambier store to try to appeal to people’s better nature and for them to dispose of their rubbish and unwanted goods through the right channels.”

He said some of the people dumping rubbish were repeat offenders and police have gone around to people’s homes to warn them against dumping rubbish, even if there was no prosecution.

Mr Smith called on people to watch out for such behaviour and call police, or they could remain anonymous by informing the Salvation Army.

He claimed some people were even ripping open bags and stealing items that had been donated to the store.

The dumping of unsuitable material costs the Salvation Army about $6m each year across Australia.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Dumped rubbish hits welfare agency”

  1. Mannah on January 6th, 2010 9:19 pm 1

    Once when donating to the Salvos I happened upon a lady stealing from the donations left there Did this lady kook needy? No. She had a nice, fairly new wagon and the worst thing was was the boot of this car was absolutely full of clothes and knick knacks. Disgusting!

  2. A on January 7th, 2010 4:42 pm 2

    One Sunday evening my husband dropped some stuff off. When I realised he had left at the door and not in the bins I went to put in. In the five-ten minutes it had taken to return to the store, our bags had been ripped open and a lot had been taken. I was amazed and disappointed.

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