VICTORIA'S biggest heist isn't by Underbelly types in balaclavas.
The wanted poster would show faces you know - friends, colleagues, and probably the face in the mirror.
If four Eiffel Towers vanished, the outcry would be incredible.
Each year, though, that's the weight of stuff plundered from hard rubbish collection piles.
Research shows that while four out of five households contribute to hard rubbish at least every two years, two in five make a
withdrawal.
Parents with young children are either the worst offenders or the best recyclers.
Monash University lecturer Dr Ruth Lane has spent several years poring over hard rubbish.
She says rubbish raiding is an urban culture, an environmental statement and, for some, a business operating on the grey fringes of the law.
"Whole student households get furnished with hard rubbish and collectors go out for it," she said.
"We recruited 69 households who agreed to monitor what happened to their own hard rubbish piles.
"Something like 35 per cent of all the material was scavenged before the council pick-up."
On 2006-07 figures, the most recent available, more than 63,000 tonnes was left after the scavengers had been. About 35,000 tonnes, presumably, was long gone.
"Nearly half of the furniture items put out were scavenged," Ms Lane said
"A lot of children's toys get picked up. It could be kids. It could be those stay-at-home parents."
The idea of a new home for a once-loved plaything is so heartwarming it has sparked three Toy Story movies, but the hard-rubbish hunt isn't all child's play. Some play rough.
When China was booming a couple of years ago, scrap metal brought premium prices.
Professional scroungers numbered in the hundreds then and as metals prices pick up, Ms Lane expects they will be back.
"There were real turf wars going on," she says.
"There's a bit of violence out there, around the edge of it all. There was some waste management contractor who did get knifed at some point."
Municipal Association of Victoria president Cr Bill McArthur says there is a move away from all-in hard collection to curb illegal dumping, scavenging, mess and growing costs.
"Councils are offering residents alternatives such as free on-call pick-up services and vouchers for free hard rubbish disposal at local tips," he said.
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