Gallagher vows to clean up charity bin mess

The meagre returns, an average of less than $80 per bin, will put the future of the city's 230 recycling sites in even greater doubt, with the ACT Government signalling it has lost patience with the level of illegal dumping around the bins.

But the Lone Fathers' Association says it would be ''buggered'' without its bins, despite the paltry earnings returned to the group.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has called the seven registered charities that operate the capital's 230 bins to a meeting next week to discuss the future of the charity bin system.

She said yesterday that the level of illegal dumping around the bins was no longer acceptable.

''Anyone who has been in Canberra has seen what's been going on and I think everyone accepts that it is not acceptable any longer,'' she said.

''We have 230 charity bins across the ACT, one organisation has 89 of those and I think that part of the problem is the sheer number of bins that give people the opportunity to dump close to home and in the dark of night.

''So we need to have a talk about how many bins we have, whether they still serve the purpose for which they were intended and what we're going to do in the future.''

Ms Gallagher said she doubted the bins were still being used for their original intended purpose.

''We have to look at what these things were set up for, to allow people to donate good quality clothes, and footwear, and sometimes toys to be recycled or provided to a charity,'' the Chief Minister said.

''Now, what we're seeing is a whole range of things being dumped there, quite often not clothes, quite often not shoes, and quite often not good quality.

''People are dumping rubbish at these bins, not material that can be re-used or that people would be interested in buying from a charity shop.''

But national president of the Lone Fathers' Association Barry Williams said his organisation, which lobbies for the rights of men involved in family break-ups, needed all the revenue the bins produced.

''We get $800 every six weeks, whatever that works out to be, but we'd be buggered without it,'' Mr Williams said.

The Lone Fathers' leader, who said his group operates its bins through a Sydney-based contractor, also disputed the official figures on the number of sites, saying he was only aware of ''70-something'' bins bearing his group's logo.

Next week's meeting will include the seven current permit holders for charity bins, as well as the Chief Minister and officials from her Territory and Municipal Services Directorate.

''We need to talk to the charities about the future of this program, because at the moment we're waiving fees for the charities to dump all that stuff at the tip, so it's not going to charity,'' Ms Gallagher said. ''So the time has come to make some decision on them and to change the way we manage this issue.''

This reporter is on Twitter: @noeltowell