Hunting for treasure in the trash

VICTORIA'S biggest heist isn't by Underbelly types in balaclavas.

Each year, the weight of stuff plundered from hard rubbish collection piles.

Research shows that while four out of five households contribute to hard rubbish at least every two years, two in five make a withdrawal.

Parents with young children are either the worst offenders or the best recyclers.

Monash University lecturer Dr Ruth Lane has spent several years poring over hard rubbish.

She says rubbish raiding is an urban culture, an environmental statement and, for some, a business operating on the grey fringes of the law.

"Whole student households get furnished with hard rubbish and collectors go out for it," she said.

"We recruited 69 households who agreed to monitor what happened to their own hard rubbish piles.

"Something like 35 per cent of all the material was scavenged before the council pick-up."
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I think half the stuff in our house is also scavenged from local verges... Better than seeing it dissapear into landfill!