One person's rubbish is another person's treasure

kiwi rainbow · Senior Member

One person's rubbish is another person's treasure

Delta18 · Guru

Not us but quite a few years ago a couple we used to know were taking a trip in their caravan and had stopped for a cuppa. He wandered around outside and noticed a brown sack on the ground in the distance (well off the road). Strolled over to check it out and found a metal detector (it worked) wrapped up in the sack.

Olley46 · Guru

I was wandering around a park that we stayed in and saw something shiney sticking out of a rubbish bin,me being like a bower bird had to go and see what it was,it was a Explorer tele antenna ,someone had tried to make it into a vertical antenna and gave up ,so they through it in the bin,my brother inlaw had one identical so i gave it to him, he took it home and put it together the same as what he had ,that antenna went on our last three month trip with him only failed one night to get tele reception,that was a good find.

lance C

dorian · Guru

Maybe they could use their newly found metal detector to find this:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 2nd of December 2013 09:14:31 PM

jules47 · The Happy Helper

Found a very clean fridge put out for hard rubbish collection - took it home to a fridge mechanic friend - $20 part, all fixed. His brother in law used it for years.

Delta18 · Guru

Verge collections have a wealth of good stuff. I picked up a near new Whipper Snipper, it just needed a new spark plug & it went like new.

Fisher & Pykel washers have a habit of tossing in the towel if a small coin falls into the works & clogs the pump. They often find their way to a verge.

beiffe · Guru

I don't often pick up but I do drop down things.
If I don't use it I put it ON a bin and usually it disappears.
If it is not working properly I get a new one and dump the old one.
Regards
Brian

03_troopy · Guru

I stopped to check out a large drum style barbeque/smoker similar to this one, but made of heavy grade steel, on the footpath, on one of the rubbish collection days.

It was in really good condition with very little rust. We decided it was a bit too big though, and seeing as we already have 3 different BBQ's already, we wouldn't take it home. We did notice a rolled up carpet square however, and gave it a quick look to see if it would be suitable for the dog to sleep on or for the shed. It turned out to be a 3M X 4M good quality carpet square that only need a bit of a clean with some carpet cleaner to bring it up like new. It is geometric paterned with brown tones, and looks great in the loungeroom. biggrin I bet the smoker didn't last long either. And no, I'm not related to Steptoe and Son... biggrin

-- Edited by 03_troopy on Tuesday 3rd of December 2013 08:09:12 PM

sarg · Guru

At the moment I am in Canberra waiting for my time to head off, and am doing some call-in jobs on the waste trucks (Garbology technician). As most of the university students are heading home for the holidays, the large waste bins are holding some good treasures.......I retrieved a very near new microwave for my van.......the plastic was still on the control panel. good find.

neilnruth · Guru

My husband always walks around the caravan park or camping ground after setting up. He usually finds tent pegs to add to his collection.

On a trip to USA, he wore his old shoes over and when he bought a new pair he left the others on the ground near a bin outside the hotel - they didn't stay there long.

We have found the problem in our area recently with council clean ups is the people who pinch all the parts of anything left out that might have copper in it. They cut off leads, they bash microwaves open etc. The pile is left a mess and nothing is worth 'rescuing' after they have been through. Hard way to ear a dollar we reckon and spoils it for everyone else.

mongrel · Guru

In our area of Penrith NSW we organise rubbish collections through to council .Put the stuff out and its gone before the council arrives .Most times they leave a mess but whats left the council cleans it up.Thanks guys.

johnq · Guru

I like it that people claim anything useful.

There is a tradition too, of putting useful working items on the nature strip. Not rubbish, but genuine 'good stuff'. Recently dispensed with golf clubs and bag, heavy duty tow bar with tongue and ball (labelled with car make & year, Falcon), wrought-iron plant stands and a car roof rack. The car roof rack is now on a student's van up the street a bit. Beaut!

These days the school fetes are too spaced to keep stuff for them. State schools rarely have them any more.

Grams · Guru

I found a broken child's wooden chair on the side of the road when I was younger. I gave it to my dad to fix it for me, he sanded it back, made a new seat for it and put it all back together.

It has been with me for the last 30 years and is sitting in my bedroom. My kids loved it and now my grand kids enjoy it.

Grams

Beth54 · Guru

I don't recall finding anything in my travels, I'm more inclined to lose something/leave something behind.

I left a brand new leveller behind in SA somewhere, and a step. disbelief hmm

03_troopy · Guru

We found a discarded surfboard once on our way out to Uluru. We carried it around for a cuple of days taking some pics for our Central Australian Surfing Safari.

Beth54 · Guru

03_troopy wrote:
We found a discarded surfboard once on our way out to Uluru. We carried it around for a cuple of days taking some pics for our Central Australian Surfing Safari.

Great pics Troopy.

sorry, OT but, the one in front of the rock reminded me of when I was there many years ago. We had a troopy too, and I was climbing up the back to get on the roof to take photos,,,which I'd done before,,,when I lost my footing and ended up hanging off the door upside down, by one leg. The ex said I looked like a c.ocky hanging off the wires! The end result was a massive bruise down the back of my thigh, and I've never climbed since!

-- Edited by Beth54 on Sunday 8th of December 2013 10:10:19 AM

03_troopy · Guru

Ouch, sounds very painful Beth. Luckily Bron didn't fall off doing the same thing. We both sat up there on folding chairs to take pics as the sun went down.

Wombat 280 · Guru

Sn Inlaw was standing at the local tip talking to the attendant when an old fella turned up towing a 16 foot Pride speed boat on full gal trailer and 80 hp Johono The old fella wanted to know if he could dump it as his wife had told him to get rid of it as all he ever did was pull it out of the shed and polish it once a month then push it back in while their $50000.oo car sat in the drive way. The tip fee was $150.00 so the son in-law say if he liked he would give him $200 and take it off his hands , done, next day he turned up home with the papers and all the safety gear and spare wheel. Looks like it just come out of the show room hit the key and it fired first crank.

The book price for it is today $7000.00. Some have all the luck

03_troopy · Guru

I know it's an old thread, but had a great find yesterday while scrounging for old bath tubs for the wife's veggie gardens. Found a heap of junk dumped on a bush track (which, sadly, happens way too much here due to high tip fees). In the junk was a 36 cell solar panel with a couple of wires pulled off the back and no regulator. Got the multimeter out of the troopy and measure 9.3 ish volts across each of the 2 banks of cells in sunlight with the panel covered in dust and dirt. Took it home and cleaned it up, but noticed 3 of the cells were cracked across them. I soldered some new leads to the back and connected the banks in series and measure 19.6V across the output. I tried to measure the short circuit current but found my multi meter had a blown fuse in the AMP function, so wasn't able to. I connected it up to the camper trailer via the BCDC1225 solar input and it apperars to be working OK though and after a couple of hours brought the battery up to the float level.Was still measuring 19.3VDC when connected to the charger before float was reached.

Didn't find any old bathtubs though...

Delta18 · Guru

Beth54 wrote:
I don't recall finding anything in my travels, I'm more inclined to lose something/leave something behind.
I left a brand new leveller behind in SA somewhere, and a step.

I found a brand new leveller in SA somewhere, and a step.

Ha ha, just kidding, Wombat got there before me biggrin biggrin

villatranquilla · Guru

we found a small fold-up table on the Forest Hwy b/w Pinjarra (WA) turn off and Heron Point just before Xmas. :) ........ BUT we lost our favourite brown rubber 3'x4' door mat somewhere b/w Ravenswood and Bridgetown in early January :(

native pepper · Senior Member

Transfer stations are great, we stopped at one to get rid of our rubbish and found 2 sets of ladies golf clubs. Now the girls play golf and love it, nothing like hunting round for the most remote or small golf clubs, so you can lose a few balls.

Last year we stopped at a reasonably big town to meet some friends and parked where buses/big rigs etc parked. In the rubbish bin was a ceramic heater, which turned out it be in excellent condition, just the temp dial was missing. Cost 35c to buy another one a an electrical repair shop.