Donations in dumps
Karratha charities have faced an increase in the dumping of unsaleable goods at local donation bins over the summer period.
Since Christmas, volunteers in Karratha have buckled down to clean up a wasteland of dumped items left outside local thrift stores, including broken furniture and electronics.
Salvation Army Captain Niall Gibson said the Salvos Thrift Shop in Karratha stopped taking donations before Christmas as they could not keep up with the huge volume of goods being dumped.
"A lot of donations are able to be sold from us but unfortunately a lot is also rubbish, just unfit for any use, so needs to be tipped, whether it be dirty or broken," he said.
"My past experience is that between 50-80 per cent of the goods received are rubbish ... unfortunately this does waste our time and there is a cost involved to dispose of the goods.
"We are unsure at the moment whether we will accept electrical goods again.
"We thank the community for their ongoing support. We have opened donations again and apologise for any inconvenience caused … but we do want to reiterate the message charity bins are not a dumping ground for rubbish."
St Vincent De Paul volunteer in charge Kathy Kempen said it cost the Karratha Vinnies about $100 a week to get rid of unsalable goods.
"We don't do anything electrical, but even though we've had the signs on the bins for 10 years, people will still dump electrical goods out there," she said.
"Thankfully it doesn't happen often, but we do also get bags of rubbish.
"What we need are good-quality donations, which are clean.
"There's a misconception out there we wash things, but we don't have the resources to do that.
"Just be mindful of what you donate, don't give us shoes that have mud on them or dirty work clothes with holes in them.
"We also can't sell any baby items that are missing parts and … heavy items like mattresses as we only have limited space."
Ms Kempen said she would be unable to open the Vinnies' charity bins until she had more volunteers to help sort through donations left over the Christmas period.
"I've had to close the bins off because it just took me so long to get the bins clear. Without people here to help, that takes a really long time," she said.
