Enough is enough: Staff and volunteers at Hampton Park Salvation Army Family Store Ellen Geddes, Carmel Smith, Eva Shaw and Gary Geddes.By Rebecca Fraser
HUMAN ashes are among a host of horrors dumped at Casey’s Salvation Army stores.
Urine stained rubbish, soiled nappies and white-tail spider-infested prams are just some of the other unwanted and useless items that have prompted desperate calls for residents to clean up their act.
In 2005 it cost The Salvation Army more than $3 million to clean up after pilferers and rubbish dumpers who visited shop sites throughout Australia.
In Victoria alone, costs reached more than $1 million.
Volunteers and staff at Casey stores said they were at their wits’ end and were disgusted and horrified by the mountains of ‘rubbish’ being dumped on their doorsteps.
Jenny Reid, manager of the Doveton Salvation Army store, said she had become a ‘glorified cleaner’ and it took nearly six hours every day to clean up the mess.
Ms Reid said the Salvation Army was currently spending more than $1000 a week on rubbish removal and said there was no excuse for dumping.
She has worked at the Doveton store for just over a year and said she had seen many volunteers brought to tears over the unsightly mess.
“It costs $18 to take a mattress to the tip or they can dump it here for free.
“We also find that if we are closed people dump stuff over the road at the football oval or in the creek (Eumemmerring),” she said.
Ms Reid said the store had also been swept up in a family dispute when the ashes and personal belongings of a deceased person had been dumped on its doorstep.
The ashes were later traced back to the family and returned but Ms Reid said the matter had caused much distress to the Salvation Army workers and the family involved.
Ms Reid said people often stopped and urinated on the piles of rubbish and many others also dumped their household trash.
“I once caught someone dumping garden and grass clippings and I said to them a ‘family of chipmunks will really benefit from that’,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Narre Warren store said it was also facing a similar plight.
“The weekends are the worse and every store is copping it.
“There are generous and courteous people out there but we are finding that a lot of the good stuff is being knocked off,” she said.
Carmel Smith, the manager of the Hampton Park store, said she had been met with a white-tail spider-infested pram last Friday.
“We don’t deserve this.
“We cannot walk through the store properly at the moment for all of the rubbish.
“The situation definitely gets worse through January when people have their clean outs,” she said.
Salvation Army communications director John Dalzielsaid the message to the community was clear.
“Please bring donated items to family stores during operating hours (most are open weekends) or call the collection service on 13 16 40.
“No-one is entitled to take donated goods from outside family stores.
“People who need help can go to our family welfare centres, obtain a voucher and can then shop from quality stock for free and with dignity,” he said.
The Salvation Army is calling on all community members to call 1800 664 794 if they see anyone dumping rubbish or stealing donations from family stores.
