Amazing what people throw away

[Disco_owner]

Just driving back from work tonight with the missus , I noticed a lot of rubbish being placed outside on footpaths ,the adjacent suburbs must be having "council collection" this week.

A lot of good stuff being thrown out for collection , I really get excited at times like this.

it really amazes me the stuff people throw away, we found this vaccum cleaner amongst other rubbish we picked up tonight , the bloke who had placed it outside on nature strip had cut the power cord off from the retractable mechanism :mad:so noone else could use it :confused:

Lucky for me 2 days before it I found another vacuum cleaner that someone had vacuumed water with and the motor had burnt out , the cord was perfectly okay so I swapped the cables over :twisted: the thing works absolutely beautiful :D gave all the guts inside a blast with compressed air , now I have a vacum cleaner to clean the inside my landys with so the good one stays inside the house :)


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Tell us what you may have found outside someone else's home on nature strip and have made your treassure.

[catch-22]

Less than a month ago...a 82cm flat screen, wide, Grundig TV, 120Hz, with remote and all Scarp (I think that's what they are called - Euro standard) cables. Perfect working condition.

Today, 80 0dd cm flat screen NEC TV....no remote but works fine. Going to give this one to mum.

[B92 8NW]

Go to the very affluent parts and you will find amazing stuff. My uncle lives in Brighton and the stuff you see thrown out in Brighton/Hampton/Sandringham/Toorak/Malvern/Armadale is beyond belief. It is honestly "honey the BMW is out of petrol, shall I put it on the hard rubbish heap?" territory.


I found $4000 worth of British KEF speakers:eek::eek:. FFS KEFs on a rubbish heap:eek:.

[DiscoStew]

I've heard of people moving house having to chase off pilferers cause people driving by see the furniture out (waiting to be loaded into the ute when it comes back) and assume it is their for coucil collection.

You sure you guys picked up stuff that was being thrown out.:D

I had people take some screen doors from my front yard at council collection time, they weren't even on the footpath. Happened within 5 minutes of me putting them out there.

[isuzutoo-eh]

a pair of electric 'razor' scooters were in a skip down the street, about 3 weeks after christmas year before last-i guess they weren't appreciated. They now reside under the house, I thought the motors might make a good start on a canoe outboard motor. Now all I need is a canoe.

[Mick-Kelly]

i get a laugh on clean up day when you sit inside and watch people pawing over the rubbish. You usually have a completely different pile of rubbish the next day from people with trailers etc. swapping stuff for your junk.

[chunk]

I work on the North Shore at St Leonards and the stuff people throw out is unbelievable, we get tv's, fridges, washing machines, dvd and cd players, ipods, cameras, computers, laptops, dvd's and cd's, guitars and amps, tables and chairs, beds you name it and we have found it even the odd gun.

All my stereo equipment at home was thrown out by somebody else as was two of the computers the kids use. In Wollongong very little good stuff gets thrown out, but in Sydney it's a different story. I have made quite alot of money on ebay selling things that I have found at work.:D

[Disco_owner]

I've heard of people moving house having to chase off pilferers cause people driving by see the furniture out (waiting to be loaded into the ute when it comes back) and assume it is their for coucil collection.

You sure you guys picked up stuff that was being thrown out.:D

I had people take some screen doors from my front yard at council collection time, they weren't even on the footpath. Happened within 5 minutes of me putting them out there.

someone walking passed my house asked me once "if" i was having a garage sale, when I had just started cleaning inside the garage and had pulled all the stuff out onto my driveway.:D

yeah, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't someone moving house etc , pile of junk to be seen all along nature strip but amongst all the junk was a few good bits.

[DirtyDawg]

I'm guilty of throwing stuff away, I have had a pile of Free Stuff on my verge this week and it is gone over the weekend.

[mudmouse]

Yep, it's amazing. I often see a bloke getting about my area in a Hilux trayback with a pile of cords he's snipped off all the electrical stuff that's been chucked. With the price of copper (last I saw about $9k per tonne) - he's making his pocket money.

It used to be illegal, and probably still is, to take stuff from peoples 'dump pile'. The reason being that a gazetted Council collection period meant that the property placed out side of a residence was on Council land (the nature strip) and was therefore Council property for their collection and disposal. I don't think it's a law that gets enforced too much - i've seen a few 'white Rodeo's' being loaded and unloaded with washing machines, TV's and so on in the wee small hours........

Matt

:)

[Disco_owner]

Yep, it's amazing. I often see a bloke getting about my area in a Hilux trayback with a pile of cords he's snipped off all the electrical stuff that's been chucked. With the price of copper (last I saw about $9k per tonne) - he's making his pocket money.

It used to be illegal, and probably still is, to take stuff from peoples 'dump pile'. The reason being that a gazetted Council collection period meant that the property placed out side of a residence was on Council land (the nature strip) and was therefore Council property for their collection and disposal. I don't think it's a law that gets enforced too much - i've seen a few 'white Rodeo's' being loaded and unloaded with washing machines, TV's and so on in the wee small hours........

Matt


:)

That explains why the cord was missing then :D it most probably wasn't the fellow that threw the thing out but someone was after copper.

[Bigbjorn]

Here we have a local geriatric vigilante who goes around the chucked out piles on the footpath during the biennial council collection and snips the plugs off appliances, not the cords just the plugs. I suppose he thinks he is rendering the items safe.

[d@rk51d3]

I think it is a requirement, that electrical items must have the plug removed when disposed of.

Worked for several years at Adelaide University, and anything electrical had its plug cut off when dumped.

[JDNSW]

On a slightly different note - one of my sons in Melbourne has a rather houseproud wife who can't stand untidy things. So she threw out all the telephones they had not used for a while, leaving them only with cordless phones. Then they had prolonged blackouts last week ........

John

[catch-22]

Less than a month ago...a 82cm flat screen, wide, Grundig TV, 120Hz, with remote and all Scarp (I think that's what they are called - Euro standard) cables. Perfect working condition.

Today, 80 0dd cm flat screen NEC TV....no remote but works fine. Going to give this one to mum.

Am quoting myself....haha

Drove past this morning and the remote was in a bag hanging from a tree with a big note saying they had forgot to add it to tele....so its now complete :D

[Landy110]

Yep, it's amazing. I often see a bloke getting about my area in a Hilux trayback with a pile of cords he's snipped off all the electrical stuff that's been chucked. With the price of copper (last I saw about $9k per tonne) - he's making his pocket money.

It used to be illegal, and probably still is, to take stuff from peoples 'dump pile'. The reason being that a gazetted Council collection period meant that the property placed out side of a residence was on Council land (the nature strip) and was therefore Council property for their collection and disposal. I don't think it's a law that gets enforced too much - i've seen a few 'white Rodeo's' being loaded and unloaded with washing machines, TV's and so on in the wee small hours........

Matt

:)


The current cooper anode price is $5400 per tonne, as at Friday 6-2-9
The recycle price would be considerably less.

I get cheesed at people going through the pile I have put out and taking what they want but then not putting the heavy item back on the light stuff so I have to gather it all up again EVERY day and re-stack it so the wind can't blow it around again.

[Disco_owner]

It seems I may have started a healthy debate , yes it is a requirement to remove the electrical cords from appliances when they are placed outside on the nature Strip for council collection, this would then probably explain why the cord was missing (i admit I didn't know ) , but also after speaking to "Hornsby shire waste management this morning , i am told that it is not Illegal for pliferes ( as someone mentioned) to stop and pick up someone else's goods from pile of rubbish on a "gazetted council collection" , years ago council tried going down this path but without much success.

[JohnF]

In council clean up dayI found a Uniden UHF radio which I hope will work when I try it out. I found a slim line fat monitor for my computer, etc. Still looking for the working laptop that I need--the one I already found did not work.

[DeeJay]

I have'nt had to buy a kids bike yet, & I have had 4 kids.;)
I work on the theory that, if you don't get it, someone else sure will:D

We live in a Court & get upwards of 150 vehicles cruise by every hard rubbish collection. The council are sometimes 3-4 days late, so you can never leave it till the last minute.
I've trained my neighbour well, he gets me to go thru his stuff before putting it out. :angel:
If anything finds its way out the front of my place, believe me, its genuine junk..

[Sprint]

lol living up my way makes for some interesting trips to the dump, especially when you visit 3-4 different dumps a week

so far, i've scrounged:

1x UHF, complete with aerial
1x foam fire extinguisher, identical to a water one (and we know how usefull they are!) except it has a foam generating tip on it...... it is MAGIC when loaded up with truckwash!
2x 900mm high 19" rack units
1x 2300mm high 19" rack unit
numerous auto electrical odds and sods, including 2 landcruiser aircon clutch electromagnets..... sold them for $50 each!
a mint condition Macnaught 20L drum pump..... zinc bodied for underground mine use..... well over $100 there!
couple of grease guns
handfull of older sidchrome spanners

one of the best scores i've heard of was a 1500L bulk tank of diesel that had been dumped because it had 4-5" of water at the bottom...... tap was opened, water drained, phonecalls were made and it was loaded onto a light truck with a bobcat..... unfortunately it wasnt me that found it!

[MacFamily]

I deliver building supplies and you'll be surprised what tradies throw out. Found two aircompressors in a space of a week and made one good out of the two.

Also Mondays people throw out there junk on weekends and instead of going to the tip they go to job site's (house's been built) and throw it on the rubbish pile.

Picked up a chalk board for my girls last weekend, but Ive gotta be selective these days as Ive been told I bring home to much junk :D.

Ive sometimes seen some good stuff out the front of peoples houses but always been I bit nervous/worried about talking stuff with the company name up the side of the truck.:o

[Newbs-IIA]

Was driving up one of the main roads one day during council collection when i spyed a set of hotwire mags on the opposite side of the road.

Did a screaming u-bolt at the next intersection to go and get them but when i got there they were gone... you got to be quick

Another day i picked up a 20L drum of shell hydrolic fluid

and then there is the number of council shovels and hammers that have been left behind by absent minded council workers and retreived by us :p

[Jukebox]

Found a Engel fridge last year.
Wife said why pick it up its been thrown out.
Couldn'd help myself so in the back it went.
Worked like a charm.
Gave it to a mate who still uses it for a beer fridge in his shed.

Jukebox

[martinozcmax]

I've heard of people moving house having to chase off pilferers cause people driving by see the furniture out (waiting to be loaded into the ute when it comes back) and assume it is their for coucil collection.

You sure you guys picked up stuff that was being thrown out.:D

I had people take some screen doors from my front yard at council collection time, they weren't even on the footpath. Happened within 5 minutes of me putting them out there.

We put our old gas cooker out. The council said they couldn't collect it for 5 days. 20 minutes later it was gone. When swmbo called to ask if the council had changed the date, nope. Our friendly neighbourhood recycler had taken it.

I'm pretty sure I have been told before it's actually classified as theft by taking as you don't have the owners permission to remove it however I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted. :D

[Stuck]

Someone got a U-beaut pram from out the front of my neighbours house. Her visiting daughter had just strapped the kid into his kiddyseat and she ducked back inside as she'd left her phone in the house. She should have put the pram in the boot first and not left it next to the pick up pile. Gooooone..................

Cheers,
Anthony.

[Quiggers]

some nice person stole my prize pushbike when i was about 16......

ten years later, i was driving home, ernest street, cammeray, north sydney

saw a pushbike in a council dump out;

and for the past twenty years,
i've had a beautiful peugeot race bike, would have cost so much new....

things people discard.... i dont get it....


Q

[Bushie]

We put our old gas cooker out. The council said they couldn't collect it for 5 days. 20 minutes later it was gone. When swmbo called to ask if the council had changed the date, nope. Our friendly neighbourhood recycler had taken it.

I'm pretty sure I have been told before it's actually classified as theft by taking as you don't have the owners permission to remove it however I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted. :D

The way I look at it, I've put it out as rubbish. It's actually a benefit if a recycler/scrounger collects it, as its less the council have to pay to dispose of, from my rates. Mind you it never ceases to amaze me what some will pick up.

Martyn

[ATH]

I was busy trimming the bushes and trees out the front of my place and when I went to put it in the wheel barrow, it had disappeared!:( I'd left it beside all the stuff on the footpath and a swarthy looking towel head came along and just wandered away with it back down the road.
Luckily she hadn't got far and I claimed it back as her partner was getting ready to hoist it on the roof of his van.:D
It was obviously (to me) in far too good condition for anyone to dump but I suppose to them anything within reach is fair enough.
Alan.

[JohnE]

[nature strip) and was therefore Council property for their collection and disposal. I don't think it's a law that gets enforced too much - i've seen a few 'white Rodeo's' being loaded and unloaded with washing machines, TV's and so on in the wee small hours........

Matt


:Rolling::Rolling::Rolling:


a washing machine, gee your flat out trying to fit a flailing islander through the door,
your probably not old enough to have ever driven an f100/F250, you could fit an almost full size fridge in one, ( wasn;t me ) or even use them for moving house,


john

[scrambler]

I heard a discussion on ABC radio a few years back, so can answer the legal question for Queensland at least. When you throw something out, you relinquish ownership of it. When someone (e.g. the council) pick it up, they then have ownership. If someone else picks it up first, then they have ownership. While the stuff's on the footpath (or in the bin) no-one owns it. The matter is a little different if there's doubt whether the object was discarded deliberately. The question posed was whether a diamond ring found in the junk pile was "finders keepers" and the solicitor thought it would be pretty hard to argue it was deliberately thrown out rather than lost (or stolen).

So - if it's been thrown deliberately, it's finders keepers. If it's been dropped by accident, you need to make the effort to return (drop to local police).

I do know someone who bought a car with the cash they found on a dump. They did the right thing and handed to the police, but no owner came forward. (i wonder why ... ?):angel: