Debris Hits a Homer

Brook Raflo

After thirty years of watching their favorite players round the bases at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh residents were sad to see the old structure imploded recently. Some were so sad, in fact, that they are paying Youngstown, Ohio-based LAS Recycling Inc. up to $250 for pieces of memorabilia from the former stadium.

“People were following trucks from the stadium to find out [where] they were taking the material,” Anthony Sebastiani of LAS told ThePittsburghChannel.com.

Instead of fighting the crowds, LAS is capitalizing on them. Charging $20 for chunks of turf and concrete, and much more for premium items such as seats, the company is cleaning up … while cleaning up.

Temporarily transformed into a retail operation, LAS has stockpiled an impressive inventory of Three Rivers rubble. And, all prices are negotiable, according to LAS management.

But this is no cut-rate operation. Interested fans are required to call the landfill before visiting, and shoppers are not permitted to rummage through the ruins.

Source: ThePittsburghChannel.com

The Little Trash Pod that Could

Collecting garbage is hard on a truck. A typical day involves climbing countless hills in the wee hours of the morning with a 25-yard cargo of trash, battling all kinds of weather and covering rough terrain.

But one trash-hauling vehicle recently went beyond the call of duty, traveling hundreds of miles to pick up a customer's trash — in zero gravity. The Italian-made vehicle, called “Leonardo,” traveled aboard the space shuttle Discovery to intercept the International Space Station, on a cleanup mission.

Trash at the station was beginning to build up, according to Andrew Thomas, the astronaut in charge of packing Leonardo. “We've had a crew of three living up here for some 20 weeks,” he told the Associated Press. “And as is inevitable, a lot of trash and waste is generated” — 5 tons of dirty laundry, empty food containers and surplus gear, to be exact.

But weight doesn't matter in orbit, and Leonardo detached from the station easily, latching down in Discovery's payload for the ride home. Someday, trash trucks everywhere will ask their owners about Leonardo — the little trash pod that could.

Source: Associated Press