DEMAND for goods is outweighing donations to opportunity shops around Bendigo, the manager of a Bendigo UnitingCare op shop says.
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Della Belz from McCrae Street Uniting Care is urging people to donate unwanted goods during National Op Shop Week from September 24 to 30.
The national campaign is encouraging Australians to spring clean their homes and give good quality clothing to op shop stores.
Mrs Belz said the amount of people requesting emergency goods had gone up in the past couple of years.
“It’s definitely been like this for quite a few years.
“The demand for emergency relief has definitely grown more and more.”
Mrs Belz said the op shop was always in need of donations.
“We would dearly love people to do a big spring clean and think of us,” she said.
“People are so generous (but) we are always in great need.”
Do Something founder and managing director John Dee said the decline in donations to Uniting Care was a national trend.
The organisation spoke to more than 2000 op shops Australia-wide.
“What came across was that demand was going up across the board but donations weren’t going up with it, and in some cases were going down.”
Mr Dee said op shops deserved their own week.
“There is nothing more worthy than Australia’s op shops,”
she said.
“We want to focus attention on the good work they do, make aware that they need more donations and also stop people dumping their rubbish at op shops.”
Research shows while 90,000 tonnes of goods donated to op shops around Australia per year were successfully redistributed, another 88,000 tonnes had to be dumped in landfill.
Mr Dee said only to donate what can be reused.
“I make sure what I gave I would be happy to wear,” she said.
“It’s a good rule to follow.”