Inorganic collections spark rummage fever

A new winter sport is taking over Auckland's streets.

It is played on the grass verges of the suburbs, by adults and children alike.

You need a good eye, a set of wheels, a little imagination and a pile of junk.

The players - whether they like it or not - are called scavengers or crawlers.

You've seen them stooped over the curbside in your street, foraging for their prizes - in your rubbish.

Inorganic rubbish collections are piling up outside homes all over Auckland, making it open season for the growing sport of treasure hunting.

Referees are often needed when squabbles erupt over broken chairs, and the sport even has sideline hecklers who yell abuse at those rummaging.

Teams of people from different walks of life, come out, mostly at weekends, and mix it amongst the mess.

Prizes are varied - an antique oak table with three legs, a miniature TV with no picture, the dials from old washing machines.

Sharp-eyed dealers can spot the spoils on the roadside without leaving the driver's seat.

Families set off in search of precious metals, such as aluminium and copper, to bring in extra money.

Even community groups make a day of it, combing for treasures in other's trash, to put to good use elsewhere.

The sport has no rules, although city councils do not condone scavenging.

It is a complicated issue. In Auckland City, rubbish put out on the berm becomes the property of the council.

"The main problem we have with scavenging is safety - we have no control over the safety of items put out for collection," says Lisa Eve, the council's acting manager of resource recovery.

"An electrical item could have a faulty power cord or a children's bike could be structurally damaged and fall apart two days later."

Safety issues from strewn rubbish also arise.



The council has the legal right to stop passersby picking up refuse, but has yet to flex that muscle.

"On the other hand, however, scavenging is a form of recycling - which of course is a good thing," said Lisa Eve.

When Auckland City last had an inorganic collection, the council picked up 10,000 tonnes of rubbish. At least three times that much was probably put out.

Ten per cent of the refuse collected, including tyres and metal from broken-down whiteware, was recycled.

By the time the collector trucks arrive, the piles have been well picked over. But sometimes, treasures end up at the dump.

"You often get people who throw things out my mistake, like wallets and rings - but we never find them," said Marie Gibson, from Alpha Developments, which has the contract to pick up Auckland's rubbish.

"Once it's in the back of the collector truck, it's all squished up into an unrecognisable lump."

The contractors don't care what's left at the end of the day, but they get grumpy with "crawlers" who make a mess in the streets.

"People put rubbish out in nice neat piles, and others come and smash up the things they don't want," Marie Gibson said.

"Sometimes we have to scare them away. And they get quite territorial.

"One resident was woken up one morning by two scavengers squabbling over something they found outside her house."

But other hunters say there is a kind of camaraderie out on the streets.

"Most of us are out there with a common cause - to give a new life to something that someone doesn't need any more," said one rummager, who, like, most wished to remain anonymous.