Since opening, the shop is having to dispose of at least 50 per cent of all donations, at its own cost.
Baddaginnie Inc president Peter Rankin said too many people were disguising rubbish as donations, and if it continues the store may have to close.
“People are just too lazy to take their rubbish to the tip so they dump it here and their problem becomes our problem,” Mr Rankin said.
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“It costs us every time someone does this.
“The money we raise here in this op-shop, every cent goes back into the local Baddaginnie community, and every cent at the moment is wasted on tip fees.
“It isn't fair. We’re all 100 per cent volunteers. The ladies do a wonderful job running the shop.
“Everybody in town is proud of them. But we shouldn’t have to put up with this. People need to have some sort of social conscience to ensure this doesn’t happen.”
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Mr Rankin said he appreciated some people might be making an honest error, but most should know better.
“If it isn’t something you would not give to your mum, or daughter, or a friend — then we have no use for it,” he said.
“We need items we can resell. Today we have a shell pool with cracks in it. What do these people think we can do with that?
“If you are donating something to us, or any op-shop, it doesn't have to be in perfect condition — but it needs to be useable, wearable and in a good condition.
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“Every Wednesday our volunteers would throw out at least 50 per cent of the clothing we get.
“At least half would be filthy and worn out. You can't expect the ladies to take everything home to wash it.
“We are also not accepting any electrical items. So many are broken and it costs us even more to dispose of them.”
Mr Rankin said if people were dropping off items the shop could not use it amounted to nothing more than illegal dumping, and the police will be called.
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“We are going through every pile of rubbish to try and find a name or address and if we do that information is passed to police.”
Mr Rankin said the first job he had for the day was to load up another trailer to take to the tip.
“I'll do that now and we'll spend any profit we made this week paying for that to be properly disposed of.”
If you would like to support the Baddaginnie op-shop, it is open Wednesdays from 9 am to 11 am.
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The op-shop also opens the second and fourth Saturday of each month, to coincide with the Benalla and Violet Town markets.
“So if it's a market day, you can find us open,” Mr Rankin said.
“Even if you don't find something to buy there's always a free cuppa available and a chat to be had.”
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