‘BlastWrap’ aims to contain bomb damage

Made of cheap materials and produced on meat-packaging machines, a one-inch layer of BlastWrap costs just $16 per square foot.

However, it's not as if vehicles and buildings can be completely clad in BlastWrap to protect them from explosives.

The material needs to be close to the detonation to absorb its force. It also doesn't protect against shrapnel or the narrowly focused blasts produced by rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades, or RPGs.

BlastGard now hopes to be one of the companies that's called on to repopulate subway and trains platforms with trash cans. Most rail systems removed regular trash cans after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Since last year, the Transportation Security Administration requires rail and subway systems to use trash cans that are either bomb-resistant or made of clear plastic.

Most of the bomb-resistant cans are made by The Mistral Group, an Israeli company. Those cans are made of two layers of steel, with an absorbing material between them. They are designed to direct the explosion upward — generally an unsatisfactory design for subway systems, where a blast aimed up can damage the ceiling or even reach the street above.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced in September that it had begun installing the BlastGard cans. It would not say why it close BlastGard, other than that they met specifications.

"These trash cans on steroids thwart terrorists while meeting our riders' needs," Metro Chairman Dana Kauffman said in a statement.

The system paid about $4,000 per can, about twice the cost of a heavy-duty non-blast-resistant model. It already had about 400 blast-resistant cans from another supplier.

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