Charity experiences financial losses due to surge in fly-tipping

A charity executive stated that individuals “rifle through” donations of clothing and toys left outside their shops, subsequently “take what they want for themselves and leave behind what’s no good.” Shirley Mellor, an area manager for the RSPCA, reported that within the past two weeks alone, eight industrial-sized waste bins were filled with unsellable items across six of its Rochdale stores. She noted, “We’ve seen a big increase in items getting left outside in the run-up to Christmas,” listing examples such as “A bed, some golf bags, a wheelchair, boxes of DVDs, broken toys.” The RSPCA’s monthly expenditure on waste disposal previously amounted to approximately £100. This changed after Rochdale Council began providing assistance, classifying the discarded materials as fly-tipping. However, Ms. Mellor indicated that the RSPCA continues to incur financial detriment because numerous items of good quality, which would otherwise be sellable, must still be discarded. She further elaborated, “People will root through the items, rip the bags open overnight.” Ms. Mellor added, “Once it’s open and the elements can get to it, dogs go past and cock their leg – we don’t have facilities to wash and dry them.” She expressed, “It is quite upsetting people could genuinely be thinking ‘I’ve got some really nice stuff for them here’ but, because it’s left outside, people steal them or they become damaged.” Listeners can access top content from BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and engage with BBC Manchester on platforms such as Facebook, X, and Instagram. Story suggestions may be submitted to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk or through Whatsapp at 0808 100 2230. The BBC holds the copyright for 2024, with all rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for material found on external websites. Information regarding our policy on external links is available.