The Ashburton Courier understands Stonebins, which manages clothing bins, has removed the ones they operate for Plunket in Ashburton, South Canterbury and Southland, due to an ongoing problem of rubbish being dumped in them.
Plunket Mid Canterbury community services co-ordinator Dani Thomas said it was ‘‘a real shame’’ three clothing bins Plunket relied on - two at Community House and one at Ruralco - had been removed.
‘‘But I understand why the company removed them. We can put signs up asking people to not dump their rubbish in the bins, but in the end we can’t control what people do,’’ Thomas said
‘‘Everyone loses with them gone. Clothes that were sold generated income for Plunket. They were sold at a good price so people could afford to purchase them. And by donating them it stopped them ending up in landfill.’’
Clothes placed in the bins went to Christchurch where they were sold. The proceeds went to Plunket.
Money donated from the clothing bins over many years had been used to help resource Plunket’s services to babies and their whānau, including buying toys for Plunket and subsiding the cost of courses the organisation provides.
‘‘The few hundreds of dollars that we received each year will be missed. We have to fundraise to provide extra resources and subsidy courses, and without this regular stream of fundraising we will have to look for other avenues of funding or decrease the services we provide,’’ Thomas said.
Plunket is working on fundraisers this year, including a spring bulb sale planned for March or April, reusable food container sales in July and a photo shoot later in the year.
By Dellwyn Moylan
