Philadelphia, PA – Mayor Michael Nutter wants to save Philadelphia money by harnessing the power of the sun.

Nutter’s proposed budget says the city can save more than $800,000 by placing dozens of solar-powered trash-compacting cans around the city.

Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson says the cans can hold five times the trash of the wire baskets the city currently uses. She says labor costs will go down because the cans don’t have to be emptied as often.

Other cities including New York, Boston and Chicago are already using similar cans in some areas.

Somerville, MA – Where are you going to throw that out? In a trash can, right? Now, you can dispose of your refuse in a technology-savvy trash receptor – the BigBelly Solar.

BigBelly trash cans made their debut in Somerville in 2007, according to Lesley Hawkins, Public Information Officer. As part of his ongoing efforts to ensure that Somerville is a sustainable community and to reduce our city’s carbon footprint, Mayor Curtatone participated in a pilot program with the company in 2007, installing seven BigBelly units throughout Somerville.”

The number of them rose to a total of 42 by 2008. At that time, “The City opted to make a significant investment in this program and currently has a total of 42 BigBellys,” said Hawkins. Each can cost around $3,600.

If you want to locate the nearest BigBelly, look all over Somerville, but especially in business districts, and parks.

However, now some of the BigBellys are broken. This winter, cold weather caused that to occur, according to Hawkins. “Four of the barrels had minor software malfunctions. The manufacturer has since repaired all four at no cost to the City,” she said. “The City did not spend any man hours or funds on the repairs.”
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How do these souped-up trash cans work? All of the BigBelly “trash compactor[s]” includes a series of lights, which are located on the can’s side. That feature signifies its status – empty or full, according to Hawkins. Not only do they fire off a text-message upon their being filled to capacity, but they “will also upload that information to a website” that can be accessed by the City at any time,” said Hawkins.

Fortunately, “No City positions have been eliminated as a result of the implementation of the BigBelly barrels,” she said. Instead, “the barrels have allowed for better allocation of City resources and staff.” Therefore, money for gas and productivity were saved. Further, the expense of trash removal is lower “because the trash in the barrel is compacted and is not exposed to the elements, therefore not becoming wet, it weighs less.”

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Somerville, MA – In the ongoing struggle against climate change, enter the texting trash can.

This month, Somerville, Mass., will install text-messaging technology in about 50 public trash cans located in high-pedestrian and far-flung areas. The idea is that the cans, made by BigBelly Solar, will transmit text messages to a central database, notifying haulers that they are full and allowing town managers to maximize collection efficiency.

Somerville has about 50 BigBelly cans - a handful purchased in early 2007 and the rest last April. Like the robotic trash collector popularized in Pixar’s film “Wall-E,” BigBelly units compact trash as   it is deposited, and obtain the energy to do so from the sun — via a photovoltaic panel on top.

BigBelly says its smart cans … holds 180 gallons of trash, compared to 30 gallons for a normal can. And by compacting trash themselves, they can reduce garbage collection trips by 80 percent.

Somerville will now be the first to add the text-messaging feature.

Michael Lambert, the chief of staff to Somerville’s mayor, Joseph Curtatone, says the technology will allow the barrel to radio a signal to city hall, alerting a customer service representative that it’s full.

“So we don’t have to check it anymore,” Mr. Lambert said. “We just have to go whenever needed.”

Whatever savings are derived from the move will come atop those already expected from the BigBelly units. The city decided last year to “saturate” its most highly trafficked area, Davis Square, near Tufts University, with six BigBellys.

“We had been visiting that area three times a day to empty the traditional bins, and now we go there twice a week,” Mr. Lambert said. The city has saved on gas, vehicle maintenance and labor costs, he reported, and the cans have helped reduce traffic in an already congested area.

From just the six cans at Davis Square, Mr. Lambert said, the city expects savings of $14,000 annually.

Estimates vary, but one oft-quoted statistic puts the number of garbage trucks in the United States at over 130,000, collectively burning over 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel each year. Reducing the number of trips they make could provide significant fuel savings, as well as reduce emissions.

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Somerville, MA – The city of Somerville, Massachusetts, has 50 of these BigBelly Solar Trash Receptacles.

Unlike normal city trash cans, the BigBelly units function as trash compactors themselves. Because trash is compacted where it’s deposited (rather than piling up and spilling out), each BigBelly can hold five times the trash a normal can could, which substantially reduces the number of pickup trips necessary. And the energy is clean: the compacter is powered by solar panels on top of the can which are, apparently, efficient enough to work in cloudy Somerville.

Now the BigBellys in Somerville are getting rigged to send text messages to waste management headquarters when they’re full so there’s no more need to drive around checking if cans are full at all. If your city’s in the market for some new trash receptacles, lobby for these.

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Managing Automation Media has chosen BigBelly Solar as one of the 2009 PM100 Award Winners.  This prestigious honor is awarded to 100 recipients from a pool of considerable nominees.

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Fairfax, VA – Bailey’s Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences is a busy place on the weekends–as well as on weekdays–when school is in session.  The Fairfax County public school’s playgrounds are heavily used, and its fields are frequently used by area soccer teams; by Monday morning, its trash receptacles are usually overflowing.  So when representatives of the school’s business partner, the U.S. Forest Service, suggested installing solar-powered trash compactors to help control the volume of trash, school officials were quick to concur.  The school now has two BigBelly® solar compactors on school grounds that are completely self-powered and have five times the capacity of ordinary trash receptacles.

The solar-powered compactors, which are used by the Forest Service in some national forests and at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., can cut fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent.  The units have batteries, enabling them to work on cloudy days and at night.  They compact trash to 20 percent of its normal size, do not require the use of plastic bags, and are animal- and tamper-resistant.  Because they compact the trash, they need to be emptied less often than traditional trash bins, reducing the need for trash pickup by fossil fuel-powered trucks.

So far, students enjoy hearing the compactors make crunching noises as they compact the trash.  Bailey’s science specialist Anne Rosenbaum is working on plans to integrate the workings of the compactors into the school’s solar energy units and to sponsor a poster contest on the importance of recycling and using solar energy to help save the environment.  Because each BigBelly® has a computer chip that tells how much garbage has been compacted and how much energy has been used, Rosenbaum hopes to use that information in future science lessons as well.

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