mmg.com.au

Volunteers at Buddy’s (St John’s) and the Ambulance Auxiliary Op Shops in Heathcote have been sorting through clothes, electrical appliances and televisions that are in such poor condition they cannot be used or passed on to those in need.

Kathleen and Malcolm Tubb, from Buddy’s Op Shop at St John’s Anglican Church, said dumping useless items at the shop was the same as stealing from the church.

‘‘To get rid of these televisions we have to dump them at the tip, which will cost around $100,’’ Mr Tubb said.

‘‘It’s no different to stealing $100 from the church.’’

‘‘They haven’t stopped to think about it, at all,” Mrs Tubb said.

‘‘Even if the televisions have a good picture and sound, they’re useless if they’re analog. But a lot of these don’t work at all.’’

‘‘There’s no way anybody could say they thought these were all right or they wouldn’t be coming out at night to dump them here,’’ Mr Tubb said.

‘‘And we also collect. People can just call up and we’ll come out and collect it.’’

Mrs Tubb said TVs were not the only problem.

‘‘We’ve been getting soiled and torn underwear, broken toys and electrical appliances that don’t work,’’ she said.

Mr Tubb said previously electrical goods had been a problem because they had to be tested before they could be sold in the shop.

St John’s now has an arrangement in place with the St Vincent de Paul Society so electrical appliances are now sent to the society in Bendigo.

Eunice Williams, at the Ambulance Auxiliary Op Shop, said people were dumping whatever they could.

‘‘They drop it at night a lot of the time so we can’t see what it is. They also drop things over the back fence, which smashes them so, even if they were good before, we can’t use them.’’

Mrs Williams said she felt part of the problem was the cost of using the rubbish tip.

‘‘The tip is so dear, so people will drop it here instead,’’ she said.

‘‘If people got a couple of freebies (tipping tickets) each year or it was cheaper, that might help.’’