A dirty secret that keeps getting out
Trash to you, treasure to someone else: Old kitchen appliances dumped on a Budapest sidewalk during one of the city's notorious "garbage days."
For years, the annual "large garbage" curbside disposal days known in Hungarian as lomtalanítás have resulted in chaotic scenes of furniture, old television sets and other bric-a-brac being strewn across sidewalks and streets by people hunting for items worth salvaging. And it is likely to stay that way for some time, despite an unusual effort by the city of Budapest to limit the carnage.
According to daily Népszabadság, the Budapest Public Maintenance Services (FKF Zrt), the company which organizes lomtalanítás days and removes the resulting debris, last year decided not to make the schedule of such days public, so that only local residents would know the exact dates.
The plan, however, has not worked out as intended. Even given the information blackout, scavengers begin working the curbs up to a week before the scheduled day, taking apart disposed appliances right on the spot while others bring them food and water.
Officials of FKF Zrt says residents are not helping the situation. Though the announcements of upcoming lomtalanítás dates posted inside buildings include requests that residents not bring items outside before the specified day, many ignore the pleas and quickly begin filling the sidewalks with what they consider junk, and what some others often consider treasure.
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