What’s Hiding in Backyards?

“You have to come over and see this thing in my backyard. It’s something you wouldn’t expect to find, and it’s quite fascinating. Imagine discovering old underground garbage cans that were once used decades ago,” my friend said.

That’s how the call began from my friend Mike weeks ago.

“I think I just discovered an underground bombing shelter,” he said. Of course I hustled over.

What he discovered wasn’t a bomb shelter after all — but, rather, one of those old underground garbage cans.

Beneath a layer of leaves was a rusted metal hatch stamped “Somerville, Mass.” This hatch was solid, heavy, clearly old. At first we looked and wondered — water tank? Maybe a utility vault? But after some poking around (and a bit of internet research) we realized what it really was: one of those now largely forgotten belowground trash bins New Englanders of yore would have used. And I was as addicted as that.

Life Before Curbside Pickup

Back in the mid-1900s, handling garbage was a completely different trip. People employed those heavy metal cans that raccoons adored, and which melted into the snow with grace. Wind knocked them over. Rain rusted them through.

So somebody came up with a practical solution — bury the can, thereby creating underground garbage cans.

Think of a metal box buried in the ground, with only the open top exposed. It turned animals away, locked in smells and remained aloft on windy days. The collectors lifted the lid, dragged the can out, dumped it, then shoved it back in on trash day. Easy. Low-tech. Smart.

My neighbor Sharon mentioned that her dad’s taught her the trick when she was a little kid. “It was just a piece of the yard,” she said — as pedestrian as a hose or swing set.

Why Did They Disappear?

Curbside pickup had largely replaced them by the 1970s. Light barred heavy, lumbering ones of plastic; they were light, easier to move around and not plagued by the maintenance slips. The underground cans? They began to fall out of favor.

The lids would rust. Seals gave out. Water pooled inside. Some of them froze shut altogether in the winter. You either sealed the wells or dug them up. And just like that — poof. Gone.

Sure, they had drawbacks. Mosquitoes came with standing water. They weren’t easy to clean. The winters in New England didn’t help matters any. They rusted out completely over time.

And yet, for a time, they were the ideal no-nonsense trash accommodation. Underground garbage cans showed pure New England ingenuity.

Unearthing a Backyard Relic

Discovering one today is sort of like finding buried treasure. You might notice a lid stamped with “Cambridge Sanitation” or a name like “Frances Swigert Jones” — tiny time capsules from decades long past.

They’re easy to overlook unless you know what to look for. But that hasn’t stopped people from getting creative with them. One neighbor used his as a flower planter. Another guy has turned his into a secret beer cooler at barbecues.

Flower pot or cold beer stash turned trash bin? Now that’s a glow-up for old underground garbage cans.

What Old-School Creativity Looks Like

Garbage cans on the ground were never pretty. They weren’t designed to make a statement — just to work. Rugged. Practical. Made to weather the worst the vagaries of New England could throw at them.

They are not in museums or in history books. But there they are — discreetly tucked in yards, buried under leaves, just waiting to be found.

So, if you’re going for a stroll round the garden and see a weird old lid in the soil, don’t just walk over it. You could be on top of history with these underground garbage cans. One rusty, neglected can at a time.