Piles of rubbish dumped outside Salisbury Salvos outlet ‘worst ever seen’ – as charity faces clean-up bill
A Salvos store has been abandoned due to mountains of rubbish dumped outside the store as volunteers returned from a long weekend.
The Salvation Army store in Salisbury, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, spent hours cleaning up the illegally dumped waste on Tuesday.
David Waylen, a business associate who operates next door, said this was the worst case of trash being left there that he had ever seen.
Several shopping carts remained overloaded with clothes and piles of baby items sat next to a trash can, none of which could be accepted due to strict donation laws.
Any donations had to be placed in the donation bins to be accepted by charities, which also left Salvos with the bill to dispose of the discarded goods.
Salisbury’s Salvos, in Adelaide, recorded the worst case of illegal dumping volunteers had ever seen, with carts full of used goods they could not accept
David Waylen, a local business associate, said the piles of trash were stacked at head height when he saw them Tuesday morning
Mr Waylen said the piles of goods were stacked as high as his head when he first saw them.
“There’s really no excuse for why this is happening,” he says told 7News.
The unknown perpetrators had lined the entire front of the store with trash and tucked the overflowing carts around the corner, away from the donation bins.
Dumping used goods or rubbish outside a charity shop is illegal, but it is unlikely anyone will be caught as the Salvos’ security camera was stolen.
“The Salvos are so good and it’s disgusting when people leave things behind that they don’t want,” said one angry resident.
The Salisbury Salvation Army does not accept donations outside of business hours, but that has not stopped the illegal dumping that has been taking place for years.
A Salisbury City community group attempted to address the issue on its social media page in 2021, but so far their plea has fallen on deaf ears.
‘Reminder: The Salvos Store on John Street (and Judd Lane) does NOT accept out-of-hours donations,’ one message said.
‘There is no option to collect items outside of office hours, so if you leave items there outside of office hours it will be considered ILLEGAL DUMPING and fines will be imposed under Council statutes.
‘Unfortunately, most weekends this area is vandalized by people dumping goods that cannot be resold, sorting bags of items and then spreading them across the public footpath and car park.’
At the time this update was posted, store volunteers claimed they were losing hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars a year cleaning up the mess.
In South Australia it is illegal to dump waste in a public location without a permit under the law Act to Combat Local Nuisance and Litter 2016.
On-the-spot fines can range from $210 to $1,000 if someone is caught.
The Salisbury Salvation Army doesn’t accept donations outside of business hours, but that hasn’t stopped people from doing so continuously for years