Killing with kindness - Women's Refuge plea to stop donation dumps

A charity shop set up by Tauranga Women's Refuge will close its doors after being plagued by dumped donations.

The store has also struggled to cover running costs.

Large piles of dirty clothing and unusable electronics or furniture were left strewn across the footpath area outside Upcycle in Greerton, yesterday.

Piles of dirty clothing and unusable furniture create an eyesore outside a charity store in Greerton.

The mess had become a regular occurrence, Tauranga Women's Refuge acting manager Hazel Hape said.

"It's not always been like this, but the last six months we've had this happen a lot."

Hape said the continuous dumpings and lack of funding to pay for the commercial space meant the refuge would close the charity store on February 10.

The store, on the corner of Cameron Rd and Pooles Rd, has been running for about two-and-a-half years. Many of its staff have been volunteers, often tasked with cleaning up donations or taking them to the dump.

Hape said she believed the people dropping items off had good intentions. But others were going through to find what they liked and throwing the rest away, making the mess much worse. Donated items were also left out in the elements such as rain, making electrical goods and some furniture unusable.

"When we get there in the morning, it's just strewn all over the place which just makes it look really bad. There are these lovely people in this community, and they have to put up with that? They are only going to put up with that for a little while."

The refuge is now not accepting any more donations for the store before it closes next month.

"We want to thank everybody. We get where their goodwill comes from, but it's just getting problematic. Then we have to take it to the dump."

Yesterday's dumping was "particularly bad with really grungy, dirty clothing".

Hape said they tried to clean up what they could but were limited in terms of staff and funding and she had become impatient. She has posted a plea online saying the refuge has had enough.

"This is ... totally unacceptable to do this to us, the neighbourhood and community. Stop being lazy, stop dumping, stop being rude and take your rubbish to the dump."

[insert Trixie-may]