By December, so many of the wooden benches and desks were sitting empty that the school started selling them off as scrap material.

到了12月，很多木凳和木桌都空着，于是学校开始把它们当作废料卖掉。

Elsewhere he has written about the impact of local-council cuts, a couple mourning a stillborn child and the creation of a community playground out of scrap materials.

他还在别的作品中描写过地方议会削减开支的影响，描绘过一对夫妇对一个死婴的哀悼，刻画过废弃材料建造的社区游乐场。