GumBuster, eBay, Dirty Jobs & Bridgeport
Now some gum cleaning news from this side of the pond.
A downtown improvement council from Bridgeport, one of Connecticut’s poorer cities, saw a GumBuster on the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs” (for additional coverage on Bridgeport’s efforts, check out the show’s blog here).
It was a perfect solution to the gum stuck to the streets and sidewalks of their downtown, but they couldn’t afford the $6,200 it cost to buy a new one, so they turned to eBay and found a used one for $1,300. They spent another $300 on a generator at Home Depot, and they were in business.
As reported in The Record, from northern New Jersey, it’s made the task incredibly easier:
(Downtown improvement council officials) say it’s about as easy as, well - walking and chewing gum at the same time.
Workers spray steam over the wads to loosen them up, then dissolve the rest with a solution of soap and water and scrape up the residue.
While you may not be able to get quite as good a deal as Bridgeport did on eBay, you can still get your own GumBuster on the site for $5,950 or a used one (with free generator) for $3,990 (prices and availability as of Tuesday, August 12).