AFTER hours dumping out the back of Coffs Harbour Salvation Army Family Store is getting out of hand.

Some days the staff come in to work finding old mattresses, mouldy furniture and piles of clothes strewn around the back yard of the premises, and along the back laneway, Park Avenue Lane.

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“Last Friday we came to work and there was a lounge, bedding, cutlery and bags of clothing covering an area as long as the container we have out the back – 25 feet of dumped ‘stuff’,” Tasha Duck, Manager at Coffs Harbour Salvation Army Family Store told News Of The Area.

“We have signs up that say we don’t take donations out of working hours which are 9am to 4am Monday to Friday and until 12.30 on Saturdays, because there is no one to take it in.

“When it sits there overnight or over the weekend, the homeless come by and rip open the bags and it spreads down the laneway to the neighbouring businesses.”

Taking responsibility for the donated goods, Tasha’s team members gather them up and take everything in a truck to the Council waste facility where they get preferential rates on fees.

“People don’t want to pay the Council fees, they can’t afford it, but it’s not for the Salvation Army to gather up old lounges and strewn clothes and take it to the dump for them.

“Coffs Harbour has a mouldy environment and with all the rain and floods it’s even worse.

“People are clearing out their homes, but by the time it gets to us it’s not worth keeping – we have to sort and redirect it to the tip.”

Donations within working hours are gratefully received, said Tasha, and with her team they are working on repurposing where they can.

“We are very careful about what we send to landfill and separate out all recyclable broken goods and cardboard to go to the right place at the tip, and within the store we have totally eliminated plastic bags.

“We have created a way to make bags out of old clothes which we give to people when they shop with us.

“We are also working with our head office to send things overseas where they are needed.”

The problem of out of hours dumping is experienced by other charity shops who reiterate the message to the community: Please donate during business hours and don’t dump household waste when no-one is looking because the charities have to pay the council waste charges.

By Andrea FERRARI