"I guess it's easier for them to just dump it here so we'll take it to the dump for them," said Salvation Army store volunteer Susan Randall.

"They must think we've got nothing better to do".

This is the message coming from local groups who are tired of having to clean up the mess left at their stores over weekend.

"They should come back and pick it up," said Salvation Army store volunteer Janell Wilton.

"If we see them doing it we will report them."

By 6pm on Friday afternoon there was so much rubbish in front of the Salvation Army donation bins that the youth group was unable to access the back door to go inside for their meeting.

These 'donations' included broken bicycles, dirty and broken furniture, clothes strewn over the footpath and cardboard boxes filled with used foodstuffs including a half empty bottle of vinegar.

"All of this will have to go to the dump," Susan said.

"That means our truck will have to take the time out to do that and delay a pickup that was already planned for this morning."

Recently the Orange St Vincent de Paul store experienced the same frustration as items including a broken television encrusted with bird droppings were left outside its store.

Orange City Council manager of enterprise services Wayne Davis said the problem could be caused by people not being aware of what items are not suitable for donation.

"Some people would understand the expectation that only clean, suitable products would be donated, but other people may need more direction."

"If people are disposing of their waste under the guise of making donations it is, in effect, a form of littering," he said.

Arrange for pick-up

Anyone who wants to make donations to charity stores should call first and arrange for the store to do a pick-up.

If something is unsuitable for resale people with their own transport can deliver items for disposal at the Ophir Road Resource Recovery Centre.

The minimum charge for a trailer load of waste is $12, or $6 for an item such as a bag of waste.

For items under two cubic metres Orange residents can utilise the user pays bulky items service by purchasing a $3.40 ticket from the Orange City Council cashier (where rates are paid) and then calling the number on the ticket to arrange to have the items picked up.