Credit: Sarah Mirk
Pre-street fair insanity

Looking for a combination art installation and waste receptacle? NE Alberta St.’s got it.

A trash cans cry for help

Here’s the deal: plastic and glass bottles stick in the top openings and trash goes, well, in the can. Clever, creative, and pretty damn practical if you ask me. Funded by a $15,000 Portland Main Street grant, these 19 cans are paneled with recycled street signs, giving them a reflective glow at night (and also the “trendy inner-city” vibe). Ivan McLean is the artist behind the cans.

However, these colorful installations were hit hard by the Alberta Street Fair last weekend. Maintenance for the can, covered by donations from building owners, business owners and residents (according to Sara Wittenberg, executive director of Alberta Main Street), may be whole other issue.

Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention...

10 replies on “Multi-use Trash Cans Hit NE Alberta”

  3. My first thought is to knock the tops off the bottles with a samurai sword. My second thought is that these are both silly and ugly. I have no third thought.

  6. Maybe I was a bit harsh, calling it silly and ugly. How about “Not to my taste”? Still makes me crave a samurai sword, though.

  7. Those trash cans that cost a grand must be of the stone variety by bus stops and such – right? Ones that look like they will last a lifetime.
    These over-priced, silly and ugly (to borrow from Todd) ones won’t be around 10 years from now.

  8. The tops of these were overflowing with paper cups, bottles, and other random trash well before the street fair. Also, no instructions on the things, so I didn’t know if they were meant for trash or what.

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