By Jackson Russell
The Salvation Army Broadford Corps is struggling to cope with the amount of rubbish being dumped on their doorstep every week.
Like most opportunity shops, Broadford Salvation Army have always had to deal with rubbish dumping but thrift shop manager Rachel Nally said it seemed to had grown exponentially since Christmas.
“We get dumped on quite a lot and it’s not good stuff. It’s stuff that should be going to a tip, a lot of broken furniture,” she said.
“I’ve just pulled up today and someone’s dumped a lounge suite. You can tell it hasn’t been donated because of the way it’s just been piled up and left in the rain.”
Volunteers are now so busy taking care of dumped rubbish that it’s taking away from their time helping people.
“No one’s paid so they’re donating their time to clean up other people’s rubbish which is hard to manage,” Ms Nally said.
“We’re getting so much rubbish dumped that it’s eating into our bottom line because we then have to pay for removal of it and it takes away from our welfare service as well.”
Broadford corps officer Michael Nally said it was not just broken furniture being dumped but actual household rubbish.
“We’ve had literal bags of household rubbish dumped on us. We get grass clippings and all sorts of different things,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we take it on the chin and get rid of it but it’s not only costing us, it’s costing our community because whatever we spend on waste removal can’t go towards helping somebody out that’s actually in crisis.”
The Salvation Army has received support from Mitchell Shire Council and Mayor Bill Chisholm.
“The Mayor has been fantastic. He’s been a big supporter of us. He’s a regular into our shop so he sees it too,” Mr Nally said.
“Council have helped us in the past with access to the tip but now our trailer’s been stolen so we can’t take stuff to the tip, which has increased our cost because we’ve had to increase the number of times our skip bin is emptied.”
While police have been informed and want to press charges, Ms Nally said they would prefer people were warned.
“We want to tell these people what you’re doing is illegal and is eating in the community’s bottom line because that’s what we do, we help people,” she said.
