An interesting encounter in the Harringay Passage

Some of you are probably aware of my (frankly unhealthy) interest in litter, dumping and rubbish disposal. I am particularly interested in *why* people dump or litter or refuse to sort their rubbish, the ethnography of dumping, as it were.

Part of this fascinating (honestly) topic is the phenomena of scavenging. In Haringey, you will see people sorting through bins, breaking open dumped bags of rubbish or stealing bags of rubbish left out for charity to forage. On the whole, I don't really object to someone taking something I've thrown away if they can make use of it, although I draw the line at the whole charity bag stealing thing.

Today, I got my chance to find out a little more about what and why people scavenge when I came across a man rifling through some dumped bags of junk in the Passage. After giving him my usual speech about not leaving a mess and tidying up, I asked him what he was looking for and why. He quite happily answered that he was looking for things to sell. "You wouldn't believe what people throw away", he said,  "Gold, mobile phones..." There was clearly nothing of such worth in this pile of bin bags but he pocketed some CDs, some jewellery and other bits and bobs. I asked him where he was going to sell this stuff. "Car boot sale," he said cheerfully. He revealed he was Italian and when I asked him if he did this kind of foraging often, he grinned and said "No, only when I need to."

After taking everything he wanted, under my beady eye, he tied up all the bags, and then I helped him put them all in a wheelie bin (which I knew was not a problem as the house is currently empty. I even wheeled the bin to the gate to make sure it would get emptied in the morning).

The encounter left me thinking yet again how we can find a way of allowing the kind of  people who aren't likely to be glued to Freecycle or who might not have the means to get them any other way to take what they need from what others have rejected. I've not really come up with a solution yet but I've added a little more information to my 'field notes' in my ongoing investigation into rubbish.