Call for Australians to stop illegally dumping in front of clothing bins and charity stores.

Since the introduction of COVID19 restrictions in March 2020, Australia has seen the closures of most landfills and charity stores. As most Australians are self-isolating and choosing to spend their time cleaning out their homes, it leaves them with little to no options of where to take their larger household items.

 

The impact of this on clothing drop-off hubs (which typically only accept clothing, shoes and handbags) has seen members of the public treating clothing hubs like rubbish tips. One of the worst hit States is Victoria with the total illegal dumping collections of items such as broken furniture, whitegoods and toys doubling in the past month to just over 300,000kg; equal to the size of one passenger jet. If illegal dumping continues at this rate, the cost to SCRgroup will exceed $1 million over the next 12 months.

 

SCRgroup has pleaded with Local Government to step in and provide assistance in the clean-up costs, as it becomes no longer viable. SCRgroup has also appeared across 5 major news networks over the past 2 weeks (Channel 7 Sunrise, Channel 7 6pm News (Melbourne), Channel 9 6pm News, 3AW, The Herald Sun, The Age and Yahoo News), reaching over 10 million Australian homes.

 

SCRgroup is currently collaborating with some Councils and Government bodies to enforce and implement harsher penalties to those caught illegally dumping. At most sites around Australia, surveillance cameras will be installed, and undercover mobile vehicles will monitor clothing hubs ready to catch offenders.

 

The advice to members of the public wishing to dispose of their unwanted larger household items are as follows:

• Contact your local Council for a FREE hard waste collection. Most Councils offer 2 FREE collections per year.
• Visit Planet Ark’s Recycling Directory recyclingnearyou.com.au to find organisations in your area that might accept your items.
• Call 1800 GOT JUNK or 1300 Rubbish and book in a private collection.
• If you’ve exhausted the above options, the advice is to hold on to your materials until restrictions are lifted and landfills reopen.

 

SCRgroup is Australia’s largest clothing collection company, giving Australia’s unwanted clothes a second life in local and global communities where they are needed the most. For more information about who we are and what we do, visit our website www.scrg.com.au.