Mar. 2--Pittsburgh's trash receptacles could be less expensive, more stylish and very profitable for local steel fabricators.

That's the consensus from trash can manufacturers and ordinary people who answered a challenge from Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to find, design or build a durable city trash bin for less than $1,010.

The Tribune-Review highlighted Ravenstahl's challenge last month amid complaints that the administration did not seek competitive bids before spending $252,500 in state grants to buy 250 trash receptacles for neighborhood business districts.

Each is printed with Ravenstahl's name and slogan "Taking Care of Business." Maryland-based Victor Stanley Inc. built the 36-gallon, 280-pound cans equipped with a rigid, black plastic liner, rain bonnet and a latching side door for easier emptying.

Twenty-two people, some of them representing local businesses, offered dozens of cheaper alternatives.

They included a top-loading 93-pound Witt "Stadium Series" 36-gallon receptacle that sells for $505.56 on www.trashcandepot.com; a 160-pound, 36-gallon powder-coated steel United Receptacle can available for $866.68 apiece for orders of at least four; and a side-loading, 38-gallon steel receptacle for $954 from www.globalindustrial.com.

None took the challenge as far as Wilkinsburg-based Technique Architectural Products, where employees created four prototypes for Pittsburgh based on the design of a model with precision-cut decorations being considered for use in Oakmont.

The 30-gallon Pittsburgh prototypes, ranging in price from $693.38 to $825.70, are made of one-eighth-inch powder-coated steel with canopies and doors, and feature cut-outs that spell the names of the neighborhoods where the receptacles would be placed.

By not competitively bidding the 250 trash can purchase, Technique owner Ray Appleby said Pittsburgh missed out on a free opportunity to examine the ingenuity of local firms.

"I'm always happy to bid on stuff, and often we do preliminary design work for customers for free," said Appleby, whose firm manufactured the glowing New Year's Eve ball that rises atop the Highmark Building, Downtown.

"It's a shame local companies didn't get a chance to bid on them."

Other respondents to the challenge said the city could have saved money by looking locally and thinking creatively.

"There are a number of local Pittsburgh manufacturers that would have welcomed the opportunity to quote on this project," said Rick Kline, president of HK Designs, a metal product manufacturer in Turtle Creek.