The City of Pottsville's street crew moved 30 brand-new metal trash cans out of a warehouse and onto their trucks Wednesday. The stacks were tagged with a note, "damaged."
They'd been scratched, taken off the market, Daniel E. Kelly, the city superintendent of streets, said. Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Pottsville, donated them to the city, according to city Administrator Thomas A. Palamar.
Greg Bondura, production manager at Rubbermaid, Pottsville, had no comment when contacted Wednesday.
On Wednesday, street workers hauled the donated trash cans, which were wrapped in plastic, out of storage from Fanelli Warehouse, 300 Peacock St.
"They called and asked if they city would be interested in them. We got them for nothing, but they're damaged, scraped and dented, but you can still put trash in them," Kelly said.
The street crew is responsible for the care of numerous city-owned recreation facilities, including eight playgrounds with summer recreation programs. There are "about 50" garbage cans in those playgrounds. Some are made of metal and others are made of plastic, Kelly said. These will replace the ones which are the worse for wear.
"Each playground averages between two to four trash cans, depending on the size of the playground. Some might have six in them. A lot of them are 55-gallon plastic barrels. The plastic ones are nice, but after a while the sun starts getting to them and they start deteriorating. We're going to put these in the playgrounds in the next week or so. Some will be at Joulwan for this weekend," Kelly said.
On Saturday, the Pottsville Positive Committee is scheduled to host the Pottsville Fireworks Celebration, an afternoon and evening of activities in downtown Pottsville.
The festivities will include Jammin' at the Joulwan, an event for adults 21 and over featuring alcohol and music with a cover charge at Gen. George A. Joulwan East Side Park from 8 p.m. to midnight.
In February, Rubbermaid announced its intentions to close its Pottsville facility by September 2015.
Based in Atlanta, Newell Rubbermaid is a global marketer of consumer and commercial products and is the parent company for many well-known brands, including Rubbermaid food storage, Sharpie marker pens, Graco children's products, Irwin professional tools and Paper Mate pens.
The Pottsville site is located at the former United Metal Receptacle building, 1410 Laurel Blvd. The company acquired the facility in 2007 for waste metal fabrication, according to the newspaper's archives.