ILLEGAL dumpers have forced a local disability charity to look at closing the lid on clothing donation bins and consider a home pickup service instead.
ParaQuad provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and raises money by operating donation bins across Perth.
However, ParaQuad executive director Shane Yensch said overflowing bins have led the organisation to put $30,000 into a collaboration with the City of Melville to develop a software allowing residents to schedule home pickups instead.
“People, unfortunately, are destructive and vandalise, or even access the bins and destroy the bins, and throw everything everywhere; people don’t like seeing all that, and we end up having to move our bins off sites,” Mr Yensch said.
ParaQuad has around 130 to 150 bins at the moment, but Mr Yensch says the number “mainly goes down” because of the issue.
Most of the dumped clothing also ends up going to landfill, leaving the charity to cough up the fee.
Comparing the home pick-up system to valet verge collections, Mr Yensch is hopeful it will prevent the charity from becoming a “pseudo-collector of rubbish”.
Melville’s Anglican Church of the Holy Cross has a ParaQuad donation bin out the front, which church warden Jill Bowman says has never been advertised due to concerns it would be abused.
But dumpers have still managed to leave it overflowing.
• ParaQuad’s donation bin outside of Melville’s Anglican Church of the Holy Cross, dubbed “the worst case of dumping we’ve seen”.
Flows over
“We leave it in one car park space, but then it flows over into two car park spaces or three,” Ms Bowman said.
“We’re all volunteers at the church. It’s us that has to get out there and clean it up, and ensure that it’s not a big mess, and then we have to call ParaQuad, who are very good.
“They come out within 24 hours of receiving a call to try and help clean it up and take everything away.”
Ms Bowman said the church wants to support ParaQuad but “there’s getting less and less opportunities because of this behaviour in the community for the bins to be around”.
It’s not just clothing that’s being dumped either.
“Just a few weeks ago, there was a really wrecked old lounge chair.
“You name it, it’s been there. Like pots, pans, jigsaw puzzles.
“Just name any household appliance it’s been there.”
Ms Bowman said the church can’t afford security cameras and might have to get rid of the bin altogether.
Some charities have already made the move.
Fremantle Good Sammys casual staff member Siobhan Kenny, who began volunteering in 2017, says years of abuse and raiding of donation bins has forced the charity to leave only a handful across Perth.
Vinnies Myaree says that while it doesn’t have a donation bin, it still experiences illegal dumping outside its front door after hours, with people rummaging through the piles and leaving clothing scattered across the car park.
by ISLA TOMLINSON