"Saving the charity shops landfill fees means they have more money to put back into the community/charity fund to continue their good work," Davidson said.
Davidson said the council received very few calls for illegally dumped rubbish outside charity stores because of the subsidy and most shops dealt with the clean-up themselves.
Western Bay of Plenty District Council environmental solid waste team leader Ilze Kruis said the council received the odd call regarding dumping outside charities or second hand shops.
"We get calls regarding illegal dumping around clothing bins," Kruis said.
"When this happens we contact the owner of the bins to clear up the area."
Kruis said council received more calls about illegally dumped rubbish than outside charity shops.
"As a mostly rural district this tends to be in rural roadside reserve as opposed outside charity shops," she said.
Since January 1, 2017, Kruis said the district council received 362 service requests for illegal rubbish dumping in the Western Bay.
"Of these only a handful of these have been behind shops in the urban areas of Te Puke, Katikati and Waihi Beach," she said.
"Commerce Lane in Te Puke seems to attract illegal dumping."
Kruis said rubbish and recycling collections in the Western Bay were carried out by private contractors on a pre-paid basis.
"As this is not a council run service we don't subsidise costs," she said.
"We do however operate community recycling and greenwaste centres at Katikati, Athenree, Omokoroa (greenwaste only) and Te Puke."
Habitat For Humanity Restore general manager Tim Maurice said rubbish was one of the charity's biggest costs.
"As you know some people think charity shops are rubbish dumps," he said.
Maurice said the council subsidy helped them immensely but the store was still having to pay about $400 on top of that amount to get rid of illegally dumped rubbish outside their stores.
People often dumped old couches, mattresses and bags of clothes outside opening hours which get left in the rain and cannot be salvaged by the time staff get to it in the morning, Maurice said.
"We would get up to one-and-a-half to two tonnes of rubbish - stuff we can't sell. We sell stuff for $1-$2 and sometimes we will give that away if we can stop it going to the landfill."
Maurice said it was mostly household rubbish that was dumped at the stores including stained and ripped couches, mattresses and clothes they could not re-sell.
"Most of that is dumped when we are not here," he said.
Red Cross regional sales and service manager Raheda Ali said staff were not aware of the council subsidy.
"Our shops rely on generous donations from the public and we love it when people choose to bring their pre loved items into their local Red Cross Shop," Ali said.
"However, people dumping rubbish outside our stores is a problem for Red Cross."
Ali said Red Cross spent an estimated $80,000 every year on disposing of rubbish dumped outside their stores nationwide.
"Every dollar we spend on disposing of dumped rubbish is one less dollar we have to support our work in communities here in New Zealand and overseas," she said.
Rubbish was frequently dropped outside the Greerton and Cameron Rd Red Cross shops, mostly overnight during weekends, Ali said.
"Most of what is left outside is rubbish, not items that can be cleaned and sold instore," she said.
"For example, a household rubbish bin full of garbage and a damaged lounge suite were recently left outside the Cameron Rd shop."
Illegal dumping was only a small problem for the Mount Maunganui shop, Ali said.
"In the past two years, there has only been one case of rubbish being illegally dumped outside and shop volunteers managed to track down the person who had left it there."
A spokeswoman for Salvation Army Family Store on Cameron Rd said it was a big cost to dump other people's rubbish.
The spokeswoman said rubbish was dumped mostly over the Christmas period, or after a long weekend for staff to clean up on Monday.
"We get anything from old beds, clothes that aren't usable and other household items," she said.
