What were those boxes?

A couple of days ago I posted a picture with a question: http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/08/last-full-day-in-st-johns.html

This was the picture:

We have been seeing these octagonal shaped boxes since we arrived on Newfoundland in Argentia... do *you* know what they are used for? Answer in a later blog entry....

I also posted this question on Facebook, and a couple of folks indicated that they are trash containers. One person indicated that they keep the bears out of the trash, and that might be the case.