That reminds me of many days I spent with friends trawling through scrapyards, pulling fuses out of cars, and finding other random interesting items.  We didn't get much for free though.  I'd have loved to get free reign on a disused building!

However, years of student living and having no home to go to in vacations meant that my hoarding tendancies had to be stopped.

There's no real alley/exchange culture in the UK (that I've come across).  You see loads of fly tipping around the place and items in there (usually kids toys) that are still usable or fixable and could have been given to charity shops etc.  Any old clothes of mine end up in the clothing banks for the Salvation Army. Stuff goes to charity. In my apartment block a full set of bedroom furniture was left in the basement, chest of drawers and bedside drawers. One drawer was broken and easy to mend. If I'd had any space I'd have taken the set with me. Instead, it is going to go out with the next skip. Such a waste.

What do people do with broken electrical goods?  Some councils have special areas where electrical items can be dumped but I know that so much is probably fixable and is a waste of plastic and metal to just throw. Some electrical stores will take your old TV/appliance/whatever when you buy a new one. Don't know what they do with them though, or what incentives exist to encourage them to take old stuff back for fixing or recycling.

One thing that struck me massively in Thailand is that nothing seems to go to waste. When it is beyond repair for it's original use, it is creatively turned into something else. I imagine that largely stems from poverty but it was very interesting to observe.