DHS S&T exploring Blast Resistant Trash Receptacles options

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently issued a request for information (RFI) regarding commercial Blast Resistant Trash Receptacles (BRTRs).

“Trash receptacles appear in most public spaces as essential but ordinary objects,” National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) chemist John Kada, the project’s leader, said. “These unremarkable containers, however, can and have been used by nefarious actors to conceal threats to public safety and homeland security.”

Jada indicated BRTRs could be utilized in public places that include train stations, airports, and government buildings as a means of eliminating or reducing potential fatalities, injuries, and damage resulting from the placement of an explosive device placed inside a conventional trash bin.

“BRTRs are designed to minimize the impact of an explosion inside the receptacle by directing the force of the blast upwards and to maintain their structural integrity so as to avoid creation of shrapnel that might harm passersby,” Kada said.

A market survey will be conducted and submissions from public safety organizations should meet minimum requirements that, among others, direct blast effects, pressure, and fragments upwards; contain primary fragments; do not produce secondary fragments from any metallic components of the trash receptacles; and structurally withstand detonations.

The market survey is slated to be conducted via the NUSTL’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program, in the wake of the Blast Resistant Trash Receptacles Market Survey published eight years ago.