{"id":450422,"date":"2026-01-31T22:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450422\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:41:11","slug":"op-shops-accustomed-to-disgusting-donations-call-for-more-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450422\/","title":{"rendered":"Op shops accustomed to ‘disgusting’ donations call for more respect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaye Littlejohn has been volunteering for more than 40 years at the same op shop in Leongatha \u2014 long enough to have seen just about everything come through the door.<\/p>\n

While most donations she has handled have been decent, she is used to the bad ones.<\/p>\n

“Dirty, filthy clothing that hasn’t been washed, the odd dead cat in your bin or something like that,” she said.<\/p>\n

Most donations are thoughtful and clean \u2014 but when they are bad, they are really bad.<\/p>\n

“There might be one week we turn up and we’ve got a whole lot of bags of really ghastly stuff, but next week it might be all good,” Ms Littlejohn said.<\/p>\n

Bed bugs and beyond<\/p>\n

Revelations that the Daylesford Community Op Shop was forced to close and dump its stock last week following an “abhorrent” bed bug-infested donation<\/a> have shocked op shop lovers nationally.<\/p>\n

Michelle Clifford, who volunteers at the central Victorian shop, told Victorian Statewide Drive the bed bugs were far from the only example of “horrendous” donations.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

Michelle Clifford says small op shops with fewer resources rely on the integrity of donations. (Supplied: Raquel Stevens)<\/p>\n

“We’ve had dirty nappies, we’ve had ripped, broken goods, smelly goods, wet goods,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People just use us, and every other op shop in the shire, I have to say, as places of just getting rid of stuff.<\/p>\n

“We had a donation where you could see a person had donated their human faeces.”<\/p>\n

It is not a new issue: a pinned post from 2020 at the top of the op shop’s Facebook page outlines the costs of poor donations and pleads with customers to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

The bed bug infestation has brought the problem into sharp focus, and the community has since rallied to support the op shop.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The Daylesford Community Op Shop has closed after receiving a donation infested with bed bugs. (Supplied: Melissa Jones)<\/p>\n

Ms Clifford said more than $11,000 had been raised in one week, enough to cover overheads in February while the fumigation process continued.<\/p>\n

She said she hoped the Daylesford Community Op Shop would reopen in March.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

Michelle Clifford says op shop volunteers are resilient. (Supplied: Michelle Clifford)<\/p>\n

A foul ‘lucky dip’<\/p>\n

Sue Caldwell said she was “not a bit surprised” to hear about the incident.<\/p>\n

The Wonthaggi resident volunteered for four years at an op shop raising funds for a local animal shelter.<\/p>\n

“There were a lot of disgusting things \u2026 you certainly had to wear gloves,” she said.<\/p>\n

On one memorable occasion, she found a handful of “rotting, stinking, smelling” pet beds dumped at the back door of the shop.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Charitable Reuse Australia says 86 per cent of op shop donations are usable. (ABC News: Herlyn Kaur)<\/p>\n

“God knows where these beddings had been, but you could hardly pick them up they were so bad,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Why would you bring those to an op shop?”<\/p>\n

Ms Caldwell said on some days, unusable donations far outweighed appropriate ones, and she would frequently find soiled clothing.<\/p>\n

“They could be mixed in with crockery or cutlery or other clothing, so you don’t know until you open them \u2026 like a lucky dip.”<\/p>\n

She said a long career in the police force had made her “pretty tough” in the face of unwelcome surprises.<\/p>\n

“It was very rewarding in the end because it was a good cause, and so you put up with this and you went home \u2026 and had a cup of tea.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Red Cross recommends donations be handed in over the counter to avoid dumping and confusion. (Supplied: Australian Red Cross)<\/p>\n

Calls for responsible donations<\/p>\n

Charitable Reuse Australia is the national member body advocating for op shops and other “reuse enterprises” in Australia.<\/p>\n

It said that of the 310,000 tonnes of clothing items donated to op shops every year, 14 per cent was deemed waste and sent to landfill.<\/p>\n

Despite issues with dumping <\/a>and periodic shop closures due to donation overwhelm, Charitable Reuse Australia argues the sector has the capacity to take on more.<\/p>\n

Australian Red Cross head of retail Richard Wood said most donors had good intentions.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/p>\n

Richard Wood says a lot of donations are dropped off in January. (Supplied: Australian Red Cross)<\/p>\n

“The most common issue that we experience is water damage, and so that’s why it’s important not to leave items outside op shops overnight,” he told Victorian Statewide Mornings.<\/p>\n

For Kaye Littlejohn in Leongatha, her time volunteering with op shops has been overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n

There is just one message she would like to get through to more people.<\/p>\n

“Respect for the staff, and just think before they dump awful stuff on us,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaye Littlejohn has been volunteering for more than 40 years at the same op shop in Leongatha \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,142731,99,10881,225482,44023,217396,217399,158908,232895,232896],"class_list":["post-450422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bed-bugs","tag-business","tag-charity","tag-daylesford-community-op-shop","tag-donations","tag-op-shops","tag-opportunity-shops","tag-red-cross","tag-responsible-donations","tag-unusable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}