You have seen them — the new, dark-brown, curve-topped trash bins adorning the East Hampton Village business district? Garbage cans can’t be expected to be aesthetically appealing, certainly, but usually they are plain and utilitarian enough not to attract attention. But these new bins? Not to put too fine a point on it, but to many eyes, they are frankly ugly. Oddly 1980s-modern, they look totally incongruous on village streets where there has been an effort for at least a century to keep up an appearance of charm. Taste is in the eye of the beholder, but it beggars belief that anyone in Village Hall perused a catalog of the Anova municipal-recycling company’s wares and thought, “Cute! They’ll fit right in with our 18th and 19th-century architecture!”
Guess what? It also turns out that these weird-looking trash bins were insanely expensive. The village spent $66,000 to buy 25 of them, about $2,600 apiece. Why was so much public money spent on trash bins of such unusual unsightliness?
The bins were indeed put out for bids. In its specifications, the village requested — with wording of remarkable specificity — bids “for single and double steel slat trash receptacles with side door, bonnet top, plastic liner, and rubber feet.” Well, ask and ye shall receive: Single and double steel-slat trash receptacles with side door, bonnet top, plastic liner, and rubber feet is exactly what the village got from the Anova company. Hm. Indeed, Anova was the sole bidder. There were no other offers. The village board approved the Anova offer unanimously.
Immediately following that approval, Mayor Jerry Larsen paused the agenda to note that the bins, some of which have split receptacles to keep cans and bottles apart from trash, would allow the village to begin recycling. Certainly, an effort to recycle bottles and cans is worthy and long overdue, but it is extremely hard to understand why anyone in Village Hall felt it was wise to accept Anova’s offer for these peculiar — and peculiarly expensive — eyesores.