THE Proper Job recycling centre in Chagford is expecting a deluge of donations from Covid-19 lockdown clearouts when it opens once again to customers next Tuesday (June 30).

Chief executive Alison Sallis said the charity was expecting to be ‘very busy’ as people took advantage of the chance to clear out their clutter.

‘Our next-door neighbours at the Market Field have very kindly given us the space next door rent free for customers to drop donations off,’ she said. ‘It means we are separating the donors from the customers.’

‘Everything that is being brought in will have to be put aside for 72 hours before we can process it and we have various social distancing measures in place.’

With Dartmoor having seen a sharp increase in fly-tipping of household rubbish in recent weeks, she stressed that only things that could reasonably be recycled, repaired and reused or composted could be accepted at the site.

‘A lot of stuff people are fly-tipping could be potentially be reused,’ said Alison.

‘There are no council-run recycling facilities on Dartmoor which is why Proper Job is here in the first place — it is 13 miles from any other facility.

‘Dartmoor National Park Authority doesn’t allow conventional tips here, so I think we will be at the forefront of helping the councils deal with this.’

She added: ‘As long as it is reusable or recyclable we can take it. We also take garden waste which we compost. We don’t take the ‘black bag’ waste that the council-run sites take though.’

The Proper Job site, beside the site of Chagford’s market, has been closed to the public since March 24.

So has the charity’s Uptown boutique in the centre of Chagford, which sells upcycled clothes and homeware selected from the donations received by Proper Job.

This will be taking the first steps towards reopening with a preview event on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27, for which customers are invited to book a 45-minute slot to browse the stock with a friend or family member.

It will showcase new stock which had originally been destined for local summer events Chagstock and the Okehampton and Chagford Shows, which have had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The aim is to tempt people to go second-hand in a boutique environment.

‘I see the queues for shops like Primark and Ikea and it makes me feel really sad,’ she said.

‘We have so many quality second-hand resources available yet many people are so driven to buy new every time,’ she added.