{"id":513937,"date":"2026-01-13T21:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/513937\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T21:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:06:22","slug":"charity-shops-call-for-quality-donations-in-post-christmas-donation-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/513937\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity shops call for quality donations in post-Christmas donation surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

One person’s trash is often another’s treasure, and with the holiday period wrapping up, op shops are being inundated with donations from annual wardrobe purges and unwanted Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n

But not all donations end up on the racks.<\/p>\n

Charities have issued a plea for people to be mindful of what they are donating, with staff saying many donated items are unusable.<\/p>\n

“[We don’t take] baby trolleys, helmets, baby seats for the car, microwaves and electronics,” South West area manager for St Vincent de Paul Society Ari Jadi said.<\/p>\n

“Most of them we don’t accept because we have to re-tag it before we are able to resell it \u2014 it’s a health and safety issue.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ari Jadi loads an unwanted oil heater into a skip bin. Vinnies does not take electrical items. (ABC Riverina: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

Mr Jadi said people often just dumped rubbish, or they left good donations outside full bins in the elements.<\/p>\n

“During this period of time, it’s a lot, especially in Wagga. There’s general waste that gets picked up every day, and we have a really massive red bin in there, and it’s so full, sometimes they pick it up twice a day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We cannot salvage those donations.”<\/p>\n

Every year, 310,000 tonnes of clothing items are donated to op shops.<\/p>\n

More than 43,000 tonnes of those donations are unusable and cannot be commercially recycled in Australia.<\/p>\n

They end up in landfill, according to the 2024-25 Charitable Reuse Australia Clothing Reuse Export Accreditation Scheme.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vinnies’ rubbish bins are often overflowing with unusable items. (ABC Riverina: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

While Vinnies makes use of some textiles unfit for resale to create rugs, throws, mats, towels, and door runners in its re\/CYCLE program, it is only a small portion of the number of unsellable items it receives.<\/p>\n

However, while certain objects may not be allowed in op shops, there are community groups that are filling those gaps.<\/p>\n

Community-led charities\"A<\/p>\n

Michelle Bordignon says donations to those in need should be in good condition. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Michelle Bordignon, a resident in the western Riverina city of Griffith, has been running the Helping Hands charity for nine years.<\/p>\n

She collects second-hand goods from the community and works with local organisations to distribute items to those in need.<\/p>\n

Mattresses, prams or microwaves \u2014 which are often not accepted by op shops \u2014 are accepted by Helping Hands.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Griffith Helping Hands receives so many donations, its shed is always packed. (Supplied: Michelle Bordignon)<\/p>\n

However, the charity was still prone to large amounts of unwanted items, sometimes left outside her home or the shed where she kept donations.<\/p>\n

“Second-hand underwear, please, we don’t want that,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Bordignon said.<\/p>\n

“I get a lot of men’s work clothes that are ripped and covered in paint, and honestly, I can’t really move them on to anyone either, so anything broken, ripped, covered in animal fur all has to go in the bin.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have a very big [bin], and when that’s full, I have to go out to the tip myself.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bordignon said she had seen firsthand the impact that good-quality donations could have on people.<\/p>\n

“Beautiful donations that are in great condition, it boosts people’s lives by getting that \u2014 you don’t give rubbish to people, especially someone who’s doing it tough,” Ms Bordignon said.<\/p>\n

Overflowing donation bins\"A<\/p>\n

Ari Jadi advises against leaving donations outside the store when it is closed. (ABC Riverina: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

Mr Jadi said Vinnies had to increase its bins in some areas due to the continuous donations it received, especially during the Christmas break.<\/p>\n

However, it had led people to place bags of donations outside the bins when they were overflowing, leaving them out in the weather to get ruined and rummaged through.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A donation bin sits overflowing outside Micah House in Wagga Wagga. (Supplied: St Vincent’s Wagga)<\/p>\n

Some op shops, like Wagga Wagga’s Anglicare, have found that security cameras have deterred illegal dumping or rummaging.<\/p>\n

“We started off getting security cameras a couple of years ago because we were robbed and we had some people come in and steal the volunteers’ bags,” a spokesperson for the Anglicare Op Shop in Wagga Wagga said.<\/p>\n

“From there, we got security cameras in the shop. Then we noticed that there was a switch, and people would come in and see the security cameras, and they wouldn’t dump things as well.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said this Christmas marked the first time they had come back from holidays to find no dumped donations at the back door.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Mr Jadi said if people were going to donate, they should follow one simple rule.<\/p>\n

“If you would give it to a mate, then it’s OK to donate to us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One person’s trash is often another’s treasure, and with the holiday period wrapping up, op shops are being…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":513938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,24023,229573,229572,229574,229571,229575,35199,229570,10180,56952,199871,41571,50,229565,229569,127761,66521,229566,229567,229568],"class_list":{"0":"post-513937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-charity","10":"tag-charity-clothes","11":"tag-charity-clothing","12":"tag-charity-donation","13":"tag-charity-donations","14":"tag-charity-shopping","15":"tag-donate","16":"tag-donation-bins","17":"tag-donations","18":"tag-griffith","19":"tag-helping-hands","20":"tag-landfill","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-op-shops","23":"tag-opportunity-shops","24":"tag-riverina","25":"tag-rubbish","26":"tag-st-vincents","27":"tag-vinnies","28":"tag-wagga-wagga"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115889831088314564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}