re: {blue]There is an old North of England saying:

Where there's muck there's brass

just as Dicken's in (oops i forget? ws it Our Mutual Friend) has characters looking for riches in dust heaps. (which i totally mis understood first time i tried to read the book (which ever one it is)
we have garbage men, not dustmen, and dumps and landfills, not dust heaps..

but certainly the poor of london thought there were riches in the dustheaps.

(i guess i have read enough of the 'all creatures great and small' series to know most old north sayings.. and brass for money is second nature to me now.)