If you're taking stuff to the tip it's fair to say the item has reached the end of its shelf life. But there is a 'secret compartment' at one Birmingham recycling centre which offers belongings a second chance. Sutton Coldfield's tip is well-known for its ReUsers charity store , where belongings too good for the skips can be dropped off and sold on to new owners. But the tip itself contains another storage unit that staff direct some customers to if they are disposing of possessions that someone else could use. READ MORE: School head quits to save her health - saying 'I even did the cleaning' One visitor dropping off tins of chalk paint, used for sprucing up furniture, was invited to drop the tins into the double-fronted unit, which turned out to contain an array of delights. A golf bag and clubs, lamps, a toaster, a fan, furniture, plant pots and bicycle wheels were among the goodies hiding inside. Birmingham is aiming to improve its historically dismal rates of recycling - an attempt not helped by the all-out bins strike, sparked by the planned removal of a job role on dustcarts, which has seen collections of everything but household rubbish suspended. Residents have been told they can add their recycling to their household waste but thousands are still dutifully separating it and taken it to one of the city's five tips to be recycled - despite a second successive year of major tax rises imposed by the effectively-bankrupt city council. Talks between the council and the Unite union, representing the striking bin workers, were due to be held this week but hopes of a breakthrough appeared to flounder even before the two sides sat down after it emerged bin wagon drivers also now faced major pay cuts.