Unsellable items pile up at St. Vincent de Paul
BUTLER TWP — One man's trash is added expense and headaches for the staff of the St. Vincent de Paul Society Thrift Store in the Greater Butler Mart. Or rather, many men's trash, as the society has been inundated with unwanted and unsalable items dumped off behind the store after hours or left to clutter up the sidewalk at the store's front door over weekends.
Dennis Slupe, the society's business manager, said signs at the rear designating the hours to drop off donations as 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and the signs in the front windows warning people not to leave items on the sidewalk are routinely ignored.
Amy Watson, the store manager, said people are dumping stuff off after hours and on weekends.“If they leave stuff on the weekends, and it pours down rain, things are ruined,” said Watson.Dennis Slupe said the after-hours dumping has gotten worse since the pandemic started last year.Lisa Slupe, director of St. Vincent de Paul Society services, said it isn't a case of people being mistaken about the resale value of their off-hours donations. Their actions indicate they know what they're doing is wrong.Lisa Slupe said the illegal dumpers are deliberately parking and unloading in the back door cameras' blind spot.Watson said the dumpers' actions are not motivated by charity so much as by the desire to avoid garbage fees.Items left after hours are often stained, smelly and not suitable for sale, she said.
“It's garbage, and they know it is garbage,” said Dennis Slupe.This leaves the society with bigger piles of garbage that it has to dispose of and pay for.“The expense of the garbage is outrageous. We can't continue. It's thousands of dollars,” Watson said.Dennis Slupe said the unwanted items have to be transported to the society's warehouse in East Butler and tossed in a dumpster there. It costs the society $490 every time it switches out dumpsters. With the additional trash, the society has paid $7,000 in dumpster fees over the past two months.Lisa Slupe said this is money that is being taken from the society's other activities, such as its food bank and client services.Even when the would-be donors arrive during the hours posted for dropping off donations, they seem reluctant to take items back home. And this proves to be a problem for the store's neighbors.Workers at the thrift store can see people pulling up in the cameras that watch the back entrance. Staff members go out and examine donations and let the donors know whether the items are suitable.Dennis Slupe said some people would just drive down the alley behind the mart and toss the rejected items into dumpsters owned by Ace Hardware, Dollar General or the laundromat. Those businesses have had to put locks on their dumpsters, he said.Watson said the society has enlisted the aid of the Butler Township Police to keep an eye on the back of the store, which yielded one apprehension so far for illegal dumping.But the police can't spend all weekend monitoring the front and back of the store, so the items often pile up.Dennis Slupe said the society has decided to put in additional cameras at the back of the store to eliminate blind spots and capture after-hours dumpers' license plates, which will be handed over to the police. Actions could result in a $300 fine, he continued. But it remains an added expense for the society.Dennis Slupe said the thrift store sales are “holding their own” so far this year.The store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
