Rubbish dumping a frustration for Rotorua charity shops

People clearing out their homes and dumping rubbish at charity shops and collection bins is frustrating local services.

St Vincent de Paul shop on Old Taupō Rd is just one of the many dealing with dumped household goods during the holiday period.

Shop manager Sandra Hermans said she and her daughter found a load of rubbish at the back of the shop last Thursday which must have been dumped about Boxing Day.

She said since the shop got security cameras the dumping had been happening less, but it still occurred now and again when the shop was closed for longer periods.

"It's just miserable to see that sort of stuff here.

"We are trying to help people and people just dump it here, and it costs us to take it to a dump. That money could have gone towards helping people."

The rubbish which had been dumped included old bedding, old riding gear and items of clothes which were rags. There was about five rubbish bags worth.

She said they had previously reported rubbish dumpings to the council.

Her daughter, Maria Hermans, said it would have taken them a while to gather it up, but some young men saw them cleaning and asked if they wanted a hand.

She said a lot of the volunteers were elderly.

"If I wasn't here my mum would have had to do it on her own. All volunteers here shouldn't have to do that on top of everything else."

She encouraged people to say something if they saw rubbish dumping happening.

Rotorua Salvation Army corps officer Kylie Overbye said, unfortunately, along with a lot of generous donations they tended to get some items they could not sell.

She said it was a time of year where people cleaned out their homes or had things which were replaced with Christmas gifts.

The more waste they had the more it cost the Salvation Army for the disposal of rubbish, she said.

Overbye said common things left at the store were old televisions which could not be resold and household waste which could not be used.

"While we welcome and are grateful for donations, we encourage people to be mindful and think about whether it is something that will not be able to be recycled by anyone."

She said if an item was mouldy or broken there was no point donating or leaving it at the stores.

St Vincent de Paul Te Ngae Rd store volunteer Ann, who didn't want her surname published, said the dumping of rubbish happened now and again at their store.

She said it took up the volunteers' time to go through and sort out.

Beds were one of the things the store had had dumped there, as it was large and bulky, and plastics which people could put in their recycling bins, she said.

A Rotorua Hospice store volunteer said they had not had a problem with either of their shops as of yet this festive season.

She said it used to happen all the time when the shop was in Pu ruru St because it was tucked away, but now that it was in the township it did not happen much at all.

The Rotorua Daily Post had been told there were queues at the city's landfill. A Rotorua Lakes Council spokeswoman was unable to answer questions about how busy the landfill had been during the holiday period.