the detritus of our lives

Each year our very excellent Council has an "hard rubbish collection". It requires ratepayers to put their hard rubbish out on the pavement and some time during that week it will be picked up.
This works quite well, though there is rather a lot of it this year....a variety of reasons for this....and it has some drawbacks.
People pick it over. Although this is technically illegal there are scavengers who carefully scrutinise (with an intense scrute.....a quote from Milligan, I think, though it now appears to have a life of its own!!!) and then pillage.
We even tried to place our rubbish out so that if people wanted to take it then it would be quite accessible, but people who ravage rubbish tend not to worry about restacking it. So the longer it stays the messier it becomes.
My father-in-law told me that their neighbour had carefully packed all their hard rubbish in two wooden tea chests; some so and so came and tipped all the rubbish on the lawn and took the chests!!
I placed two very old speakers and an unrepairable DVD player which didn't work on the curb, within 5 minutes they had gone.
Then there is the phenomenon of hard rubbish reproduction. There is now a garden fountain and high chair and an old ironing board. Curious offspring of the breeding habits of this pile of rubbish.
There is much to lament about all this.
But bless the fellas who'll come along at some hour and make it disappear. What a world!!