“She looked at me and said,‘No way.’ ” So Cottam posted it on Facebook and a delighted mate became its new owner. At the pub that afternoon,Cottam,51,hit on the idea of:Facebook-based groups in which people post pictures of hard rubbish they’ve spotted.
The item can then be picked up by someone who really wants it,“keeping kerbs cleaner,landfill emptier and wallets fuller”,as the group’s tagline goes. That initial flash of pub inspiration has turned into an 83,000-strong global movement,with Cottam setting up groups for Scotland,London,New York,San Francisco,New Zealand,Helsinki and Toronto,plus 38 around Australia (by far the largest branch is the inner-west Sydney Street Bounty,with,at last count,28,000 members).
It’s a neat solution to one of local government’s messiest problems. In 2018-19,Victorian and NSW residents consigned 347,561 tonnes of junk to their nature strips and only a quarter was saved from landfill through reselling or reprocessing.
Some councils insist ratepayers book a hard-rubbish collection. Others set a time window in which,en masse,whole suburbs disgorge bung desk chairs,George Foreman grills and toddler bikes in a trash tsunami that would spark much joy for Japanese organising guru Marie Kondo.
Most councils will recycle electronics,mattresses,scrap metal and car tyres,but only a few will salvage the best stuff for resell in a recovery centre or tip shop. There are other Facebook-based groups that are hard-core about reducing landfill – such as the Darebin Hard Rubbish Heroes,in Melbourne’s inner north – but street bountineers also like to artfully display their renovated dresser,bike or plant stand via before and after photos on Facebook and Instagram.
A successful bountineer,says Cottam,must act quickly:whoever gets to the posted item first claims it. And their biggest problem? The elements. “Rain is the bountineer’s worst enemy,” says Cottam.
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