Opportunity shop workers in Katikati arrive to work faced with piles of unusable clothes or worse, trash dumped at their doorsteps most days.

Waipuna Hospice general manager of retail Jace Dowman says offloading unsellable clothes has become a problem at their Waipuna Hospice charity shop in Katikati, and across the board.

There are six charity shops in Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty selling second-hand clothing and homewares with proceeds to the palliative care non-profit.

At present, Waipuna Hospice is not able to keep up with the demand for sellable second-hand goods across their shops, Jace says, as there is more demand for second hand clothes.

But Jace emphasises the need for donated goods to be in quality and sellable condition.

“With many people using charity shops as a dumping ground, Waipuna Hospice is having to take money away from providing hospice care to pay for the disposal of unsellable goods.

“If you wouldn’t buy it because of its condition, please don’t donate it.”

Katikati’s St Peter’s Anglican Church office administrator Denise Sisley says illegal dumping is definitely a costly problem for a charitable organisation.

Most days, their workers find a lot of unsellable clothes outside their doors, she says.

St Peters Anglican Church in Katikati.

They spend about $140 a month for a bin to remove this.

“However, we move a lot more and several of the volunteers take this home to put in their own bins. One of our volunteers takes a lot of clothes to other op shops.”

A spokesperson from Babs Op Shop along Main Rd says in their experience unusable donations dumped after hours has been a “real pain”, which results in a lot more waste.

“We are used to it and it does happen occasionally. Things that help are a sign on the window asking people not to do that.”

Waihī Beach Community Shop board member Gary Alway says unwanted/usaleable goods are not really a problem for them.

“Of course, we do get some items that we can not sell. If it is clothing that isn’t in saleable condition we generally bag that up and sell off as rags.

“Our community who donate are all mindful of what we can and can not take and generally items are delivered to the store during trading hours and are saleable.”

Just last month they distributed $20,000 to each of their benefiting entities Waihī Beach Surf Life Saving, Waihī Beach Coast Guard and Mayor View Volunteer Fire Brigade which is an amazing result, he says.

Demand outweighs supply

Waipuna Hospice is urging people to pass on their pre-loved, quality goods to their charity shops in a desperate appeal for goods donations.

General manager of retail Jace Dowman says that they are not able to keep up with the demand for sellable second-hand goods across their shops.

“We’re experiencing an increase in customers through our shops, but a decrease in sellable donated goods. With more people having less money to spend on clothing, homewares, and other goods, our charity shops are being relied on to provide affordable goods for an increased proportion of our community.”

Furniture and bric-a-brac such as cups, vases, and trinkets are in high demand, but other goods like clothing, linen, and homewares are also needed.

People can check out waipunahospice.org.nz/donate-goods or drop their quality donations at any Waipuna Hospice Charity Shop, or book a free donation collection ph 07-281 1755.

-Katikati Advertiser.