A PILE of rubbish lies scattered about Lifeline charity bins outside Vienna Woods State School.
It's hard to see anything that would be salvagable among the broken chairs, soiled bedclothes, grubby old toys and battered electronic equipment.
The pile is a small part of tousands of tonnes of rubbish dumped at bins that Clean Up Australia estimates costs charities millions of dollars annually to dispose of.
It means funds which should go to the needy are lost in cleaning up rubbish.
Endeavour Foundation Capalaba store spokeswoman Leanne Gillam said the dumping was a never-ending issue.
Ms Gilliam said the Endeavour Foundation had generally given up accepting donations at bins but people still dumped goods and rubbish out-of-hours at stores.
"On Sunday's, for example, we get quite a bit,'' she said. "Every Monday there's always stuff left at the back and front door.
"Unfortunately people also go through bins. They do a bit of dumpster diving, hoping to find a treasure and make a mess.''
Ms Gillam said much of the material left was unusable and went straight to the tip.
Generally, it was not sorted because of hygiene concerns about material left lying about, especially in relation to things like used needles.
KAB chief executive officer Philip Robinson said people dumping rubbish at charity bins were ruining the collection service.
A National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations report shows that 8200 tonnes of rubbish was dumped at Queensland charities in the 2014-15 financial year.
Environment Minister Steven Miles, who funded the report, said it was wrong that charities delivering vital services had to waste time and money cleaning up rubbish.
“This is unacceptable and irresponsible – a habit that we must break,'' Dr Miles said.
NACRO chief executive officer Kerryn Caulfield said the charitable recycling industry was the oldest and most effective recycling industry in Australia.
“Our members, their staff and volunteers, commit countless hours every day at sites across Queensland, wasting precious time and charitable funds acting as waste disposal agents,” Ms Caulfield said.
Ms Gillam said rubbish was a cost to all charities.
"We have two volunteers who pick it up and take it to the tip but you still have time and fuel involved,'' she said. "We're just lucky the tip is free.''
