I remember being in Inokashira Park and having a girl try to convince me that the carp swimming in the lake were worth 50,000 yen a piece. This story reminds me of that...[floatr][/floatr]
'Urban mines' of dumped goods would make Japan a resource superpower, study shows
Mainichi
Despite perception of Japan being short of natural resources, "urban mines" mean the country actually possesses world-leading amounts of rare metals such as gold, silver, lead and indium, the National Institute for Materials Science said. Urban mines refers to the metals found in discarded items such as cars or electrical equipment. Business interest in tapping into urban mines is on the rise, though the precise amounts of metals in existence had remained unknown. "If we can use the urban mines, Japan would be one of the world's leading sources of resources and this could create new economic opportunities," the institute's Komei Harada said....more...

I wish them nothing but the best in making this cost effective. Maybe GomiGirl could be the campaign girl?

Perhaps offering something for people for their gomi rather than charging stupid amounts of money to take it away. This just encourages people to dump illegally.

But I too hope they can find a market in cleaning up the crap that is dumped all over the place.