What is all this junk piled in the street?

I’m not sure if this is a custom local to just Frankfurt or whether it's a more widespread thing through Germany.

If you are walking through residential areas, particularly those filled with apartments, you will regularly see piles of what can only be described as 'junk' just dumped on the pavement.

Now this seems on the face of it decidedly odd for a country where they are so fastidious about their waste disposal and recycling. There is however a reason for this – the local council (or whoever it is looks after these sort of things) run a service whereby they will collect and remove unwanted items of furniture for you. All you need to do is ring them and ask when they are collecting in your area and then simply pile all your unwanted possessions in the street.

Whilst this is a good service it does have the effect of making the place look untidy. What is amusing though (well to me at least) is that once placed on the street it becomes open season on this furniture and people will root through it and drag away any items they like the look of. People will even return with cars to collect stuff they'd seen earlier. This means that by the time the council do eventually arrive most of the stuff has gone.

An ideal way of recycling I suppose.