A charity in South Australia has been forced to order extra trucks over the Christmas break to pick up dumped donations.
St Vincent de Paul Society shops were closed from December 22 until January 9 in South Australia, which meant there was no-one there to collect the piles of donations.
However, volunteers said this did not stop people from leaving their pre-loved belongings, causing a mess outside several Vinnies stores around SA.
St Vincent de Paul Society South Australia CEO Evelyn O'Loughlin said due to the sheer quantity of donations dumped, the company had been forced to hire trucks to go around to the inundated stores every day of the Christmas break to pick up all the donations and transfer them to the charity's main warehouse in Wingfield.
She said it was something the company had seen during the festive period for the past couple of years.
"[The money spent on the clean-up] is money that is then not being used to further the work that we do across the state," Ms O'Loughlin said.
'Really disappointing'
Ms O'Loughlin said the most-affected stores were Mount Barker, Norwood, Kidman Park and Royal Park.
Many of the dumped donations could not even be distributed to stores, which was also disheartening.
"People rummage through what's been left, it's exposed to the elements, and then those donations that people have so generously provided are no longer usable," she said.
"It's really disappointing, not only for the people that have donated but also the volunteers that need to go through everything and then find items are unsellable or unusable.
"[And] in the last few months we've seen a 25 per cent increase of people seeking our assistance, and we've seen people that have not ordinarily connected with Vinnies before asking for support."
Learning opportunity
Ms O'Loughlin said this was a great opportunity to spread awareness about how people could best donate to the charity.
"This isn't a message about asking people not to donate, it's a message about educating people not to leave stuff outside the shop or when the bin is full," Ms O'Loughlin said.
"Rather, [they should] keep it at home if they can, so they can bring it when the shop is open again.
"Donating goods to charity like Vinnies is a fantastic way of keeping items out of landfill.
"We want to use donations for a positive impact, not to clean up damaged goods.
"When people are donating they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, and they really do want to help, and they want to continue the good work that Vinnies does, but if the goods cannot be sold, this cuts into the charity services that we provide.
"We do go by the rule of thumb, 'If it's OK to give to a mate, it's OK to donate.'"
