As the old saying goes “one person's trash is another's treasure.”
Well, it's given new meaning each spring in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
The annual heavy garbage pickup is still a few days away, but there are already some interesting items to be found curbside.
If there's a sure sign of spring in the Sydney area, this might be it.
“We're seeing lots of materials curbside,” said Roschell Clarke. “We're seeing chesterfields, chairs, there's old bicycles.”
While putting things at the curb is a local take on spring cleaning, another annual tradition is the art of heavy garbage picking -- turning someone else's trash into their own treasures.
“I got pretty much a whole household there,” said Andrew Fillmore. “There's a freezer, a fridge, a washer and dryer, a stove.”
While the CBRM doesn't necessarily encourage this kind of treasure-seeking, they admit it lightens their load when it's pickup time.
This has become enough of a tradition that some homeowners have become savvy about accommodating the pickers.
“There are lots of different residents who are actually placing materials in a way so that people who are looking for those treasures can easily find them,” Clarke said.
If you ask officials from solid waste, the reason why they have heavy garbage pickup in the first place is to try and keep large electronics, like televisions, from being discarded.
So, over the years of just about everything being tossed to the curb, what's the strangest thing city collectors have seen?
“Probably a chicken coop,” Clarke said. “It was quite difficult, because the chicken coop wasn't broken down."
So, whether it's a comfy old couch with more than a few miles on it, or a new item for the rec room, there's likely something for everyone here at the curbside.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
