One of Canberra's leading charities has called for the hundreds of donations bins around the capital to be scrapped, declaring the concept a thing of the past.
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St Vincent de Paul's management made the call heading into a round table meeting of the city's leading charities, called to discuss the problem of illegal dumping around the bins.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, who called the charity chiefs together for yesterday's meeting, reiterated her position that she would not be sorry to see Canberra's 239 charity bins removed, but only if alternative means were found to keep the city's op-shops stocked.
The Chief Minister also said that a trial of kerbside pick-ups of hard rubbish, often touted as the cure for illegal dumping, had only attracted 1500 responses when 10,000 had been expected.
The territory Government indicated this month that it had lost patience with the level of illegal dumping around the bins, prompting the Chief Minister to summon the community groups to yesterday's gathering.
The Canberra Times also revealed the meagre returns to the good causes that operate the bins, with the biggest operator, The Lone Fathers' Association of Australia, collecting less than $7000 annually from the 89 bins that it operates through a contractor around Canberra.
Despite scrapping its Canberra donation bins eight years ago, St Vincent de Paul spent $111,000 cleaning up unwanted goods from its op-shops in the Canberra and Goulburn region last year, with $53,000 spent on tip fees in Canberra alone.
Vinnies' regional Chief Executive Bob Wilson said yesterday that he believed that the donations sites had had their day.
''We see them as a thing of the past,'' Mr Wilson said. ''We think that people are starting to become aware that this is an eyesore.
''We have a proud city here and on Australia Day we want to celebrate and be proud of our city.''
Asked if he wanted all Canberra charities to shut down their bins Mr Wilson said, ''That's a system that we think would work.''
The Chief Minister said she doubted that the bins were being used for their intended purposes.
''Some of the tolerance for having what turn out to be mini tips at some of the shopping centres around Canberra, I don't think is sustainable into the future,'' she said.
''One of the easiest things to do would be to just get rid of them but I think there is an issue there around the charities and how they will stock their charity stores and also how we allow people to donate quality clothing, footwear and blankets.
''From the monitoring we have done, a lot of this stuff that has been placed in bins is not being used by charities because it's either too poor quality, or not materials that they can give to charities in need.''
