Red Cross report highlights how unsolicited items often end up in landfill, urging Australians to give cash instead

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Fiji received the equivalent of 33 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of donated junk after Cyclone Winston hit last year.

Sports gear, chainsaws, carpets and woolly jumpers were among the items clogging up space at airports and docks.

A new report by the Red Cross highlights how unrequested goods are hindering disaster relief efforts and often end up in landfill. Aid groups are hoping to divert the generosity of Australians to cash donations because they say money is a more effective way to help those most in need.

Vanuatu was also inundated with unsolicited donations including high heels, handbags, heavy blankets and canned food in more than 70 shipping containers after 2015’s Cyclone Pam.

Aid workers at Calais refugee camp appeal for right kind of donations Read more

Ten months on from the disaster, 18 containers remained uncollected and had accumulated $2m is storage fees. More than half the canned food items had expired.

The Red Cross said containers of unsolicited goods diverted relief workers’ attention from helping the worst-affected people.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Council for International Development, Joanna Pradela, said people’s well-meaning actions were doing more harm than good. “Instead of donating household items, we would encourage people to sell them online or at garage sales and local markets, and donate the proceeds,” she said.

The Red Cross report acknowledged that humanitarian agencies had to do more to build community trust that donated money would be used in an effective and timely manner.