The most heart-warming story of the decade . . .

. . . has to be the news that a company believes that it can make an extra profit out of the debris swept up by street-cleaning machines. Veolia Environmental Services reckons that it can find enough bits of gold and silver shed by jewellery, shoes and clothing, and metals from vehicle catalytic converters (palladium, platinum, rhodium), to make their balance sheet even healthier.