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Garbage gobblers' return

It would appear a kitschy and beloved piece of B.C. history is about to make a comeback.

VSA Road Maintenance posted photos on Twitter recently of a new generation of garbage gobbler roadside trash cans that will apparently soon be making an appearance on the Coquihalla Highway.

"#BCHwy5 #Coquihalla Look who's back. It's the litter bug gobbler. Look for the little monster in a rest area soon," VSA tweeted.

So what exactly is a garbage gobbler?

British Columbians of a certain age may recall the whimsical garbage receptacles that graced the highways and byways of the province from the 1950s into the 1980s.

According to TranBC.ca, the first gobblers were designed and created by Len Shaw, for the B.C. Parks Branch.

They were originally made of concrete, but later fibreglass, and styled to look like garbage-eating litter bugs or monsters. Children and families were urged to "feed" the gobblers rather than litter.

The gobblers were initially placed in provincial parks and soon spread to information points and rest stops along highways across the province. The “Keep Beautiful British Columbia Green and Clean” campaign even included Junior Garbage Gobbler car trash bags for kids. Motorists were encouraged to feed the bags to the roadside gobblers on their journeys.

Unfortunately, the gobblers proved to be as popular with bears as they were with people. After decades of wear and tear, they were eventually replaced with much less interesting bear-proof garbage cans.

One of the last gobblers in the Okanagan graced the side of Highway 97 between Peachland and Summerland well into the 1990s, but most of the whimsical trash cans had disappeared at least a decade earlier.

The new cans are built to deter bears and feature airbrushed artwork of monster-like creatures imploring "Feed me garbage" and "Feed me recycling."

But the old gobblers are not completely gone. A few have been saved from the roadside trash heap of history and have been saved or even restored by collectors. Intact garbage gobblers were still in use as recently as a few years ago in Ashcroft, Langford and Penticton at parks and playgrounds.

And TranBC says maintenance contractor HMC has a restored gobbler at its McLeese Lake station.

The photogenic roadside attractions were a common sight in family vacation photos of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, situated as they were at some of the most scenic rest stops in the province.

Now, it appears, a new generation will get to feed the gobblers.



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