The Society of St Vincent de Paul has seen a huge increase in the amount of rubbish being dumped in their clothing donation bins which they say is costing them €2,000 a month to dispose of.
Brendan Dempsey of the SVP said that this type of dumping is not only disrespectful but also undoing all the good work of those who donate clothes as the rubbish ruins the goods.
Speaking to Neil Prendeville on Cork's Red FM, Brendan said:
“The clothes are good, but we’re getting quite a bit of rubbish in the last few years. You’d get potato peels, egg shells, babies’ nappies."
He then went on to tell the show of the terrible things people are dumping in their clothing bins.
“The worst I got was a dead terrier in a plastic bag.
“We have to get rid of that rubbish. Dumping rubbish from our recycling bins is costing us approximately €2,000 a month at the moment,” Brendan said.
As the years pass, the charity is also finding it difficult to keep up with the demands of its services.
“In the good old days, as we would call them, we had plenty of funds, and we had funds in reserves.
“Over the last number of years we ate into our reserves. They’re gone — we have nothing in the piggy bank.
“We are depending on what comes in from the church-gate collections and from our own fundraising activity, shops etc, and the number of people requesting help has increased about 10% year-on-year.
"We simply don’t have the money to deal with the problems,” he said.
Next month, there will be a major fundraising concert hosted by Lord Mayor of Cork Chris O'Leary to help raise money for SVP and the city's homeless.
