Arecent post on social media has highlighted the ongoing issue of people dumping their donations into already overflowing bins and onto the foot path at the Mount Gambier Vinnies SA store.
Vinnies SA manager of communications Jo Dinnison said the organisation was made aware of the issue through the post which garnered over 100 reactions and more then 75 comments.
“Unfortunately, we’re not always alerted by our people because it is a common occurrence so I think if they were to let us know every time something like that happened, that’s all they would be doing,” she said.
“Sometimes the public see it and they do call it out which we appreciate.
“It is unfortunately an ongoing issue in some areas.
“The regional areas tend to be not quite as affected and I think that is because people do sort of keep an eye out at their local Vinnies but it certaintly does occur.
“I think every charity shop has the same issue, it’s not unique to Vinnies.”
Ms Dinnison said when donations are left outside the designated donation banks, they often are taken or ruined by the weather.
“I think there’s sort of two ways of looking at this issue; one is where people are deliberately leaving items they do not want anymore, they’re not necessarily donating them but they are things they are trying to get rid of,” she said.
“Then there’s other people who are genuinely trying to do the right thing and donate so that we can sell those goods in store because that revenue supports our community services.
“If that is full and someone has left a bag outside then that starts a bit of a snowball effect for someone else who will leave the bag and so on and so forth.
“It does not just happen when the banks are full, sometimes people just assume they are just going to leave them there and it is going to be fine and then what can happen is either weather can come in and things can get ruined because they get rained or people will rifle through those bags to take things.
“They will either take the great donations that we would otherwise sell or they just get strewn across the car park and then they get ruined as well.”
Ms Dinnison said she would like to thank everyone that is doing the right thing and for their generous donations.
“We like to air on the side of optimism that most people are trying to do the right thing and support vinnies so we can help the local community but there is a slight element there where some people have not got the best of intentions,” she said.
“The best thing to do is to donate in store when our staff or volunteers can take donations from you and we like to thank people that are donating as well because they have taken some time to come and donate to us so that we can turn that into revenue to help people.
“If you have done a clean-up and you have got the bags sitting in your car then one more day is probably not going to make a huge difference to you but it will make a big difference to us to ensure we get those donations safely.”
