Turning dumpsters into works of art

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Sioux Falls' ongoing discussion about how best to block its dumpsters from public view is missing an opportunity to think outside the box -- or in this case, outside the garbage receptacle -- two Mitchell men say.

Sioux Falls planning and zoning officials are suggesting a revision to city ordinances that would require any public or private dumpster that can be seen from the street to be enclosed by a fence or opaque screen.

Opponents to the idea wonder why only those receptacles visible from public right of ways are eyesores -- and not, say, the city dumpsters in parks that are off the beaten path but still unsightly nonetheless.

That discussion isn't finished yet.

As long as it isn't, two businessmen over in Mitchell -- Jeff Miedema with Miedema Sanitation and Brian Klock, owner of a custom motorcycle shop called Klock Werks Kustom Cycles -- have a suggestion for their neighbors to the east.

Dumpster wraps.

Turn those dumpsters into works of art, Miedema and Klock say. The young Picassos in Sioux Falls creating masterpieces on the city's snowplows could just as easily use garbage receptacles as their canvasses.

And all those city buses covered in advertising? Imagine the marketing you could do on Sioux Falls' 172 dumpster locations.

"Obviously there's a need for enclosures. You've got a nice office building, the last thing you want is an office dumpster sitting outside it," Miedema said. "But just because it's a dumpster doesn't mean it has to be ugly."

Last year before the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Klock was making plans for the big party he traditionally holds in his parking lot for the bikers and thinking about the dumpster out there.

Some brainstorming among his wife, Laura, his marketing folks and Make It Mine Design in Mitchell came up with an image that included his classic bikes, the Corn Palace and its ear-of-corn mascot, Cornelius.

They turned that into a dumpster wrap.

"It was a huge hit, so much so that when we got done with it, Jeff took it to the rodeo grounds for rodeo weekend," Klock said. "Afterward, we had First Dakota (National) Bank here say to us, 'How did you do that?' "

Miedema said he's having a wrap made with Lake Mitchell on it. He also took one of his big dumpsters used in shingling projects, painted it pink for breast cancer awareness week and had the words "Hope is everywhere" written on it.

"For 10 years before that, nobody ever said a word about any of our dumpsters," he said. "Now they say, 'We want the pink one.' "

Again, just to be clear, enclosures around dumpsters aren't a bad thing, Miedema reiterated. But sometimes those enclosures make people lazy, he said. Do they take time to open the gate, lift the lid and put the garbage inside, or do they simply toss it over the fence, miss the receptacle altogether and create a banquet for the neighborhood rats and cats?

What he saw was people posing for photographs by the dumpster in his parking lot, Klock said. He even witnessed guests picking up debris more often and placing it inside the receptacle.

The thing about the wraps is that they seem to be fairly resistant to the whims of Mother Nature, Klock said. That said, maybe it's something their friends over in Sioux Falls want to consider..

"I've posted it on our Facebook page, and I'm going to claim we've got the coolest dumpsters in the nation unless you send me a better picture," he said. "All I can say is, if you can get people to pose by your dumpster, you've evidently made garbage a positive thing instead of a negative thing."