Philadelphia, PA – Is it any surprise that a city known for its love of cheesesteaks, soft pretzels and cannolis would embrace a solar-powered trash compactor called a BigBelly?

In the largest rollout yet, Philadelphia has replaced 700 downtown trash bins with 500 of the high-tech compactors, which use solar energy to condense trash — cutting down collection trips by 75 percent.

Facing a $1.4 billion, five-year budget deficit, the city estimates it will save $875,000 a year with the compactors, bought with state grant money. Cities from Vienna to Boston to Vancouver have tried the devices in smaller numbers, but Philadelphia put them along four collection routes in its heavily traveled downtown area.

Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson said the compactors, the last of which was installed this month, usually need to be emptied five times a week — as opposed to 19 times for a regular can. The change frees up 25 streets department employees, who are now filling vacancies on trucks that collect household recycling. …

‘We’re full’ alerts

In Philadelphia, the cans also have a wireless monitoring system that notifies the city when they’re full. In addition, the city is introducing curbside recycling containers next to many of the compactors. …

But Philadelphia is the first to use them in such big numbers, along whole collection routes. …

The targeted approach is also being tested in Somerville, Mass., where officials have focused them in densely packed areas.

Somerville has saturated its main square and several other areas, freeing up several streets department workers to repair potholes, trim trees and fix playground equipment, said Michael Lambert, director of transportation and infrastructure. …

Read or Print the Article

İŞTE SON TEKNOLOJİYLE İMAL EDİLEN O MAKİNE

Istanbul, Turkey – Geliştirilen yeni bir konteynır sistemi sayesinde, özellikle İstanbul gibi büyük metropollerin en büyük sorunlarından biri olan çöp sorunu tarihe karışacak gibi görünüyor. …

Here’s an excerpt:

HERE IS THE MACHINE MANUFACTURED WITH THE ULTIMATETECHNOLOGY

It seems like this newly developed container will solve ‘’the garbage problem’’ for good, one of the biggest problems of the major metropolitan areas like Istanbul.

This Solar Compactor developed by a company called BigBelly is now being used in many states in USA including Boston.  This new tecnology will affect the lives of human beings positively in many repects.  The most important feature of the Solar Compactor is compacting the garbage inside after it is completely full and become ready for use again.

The Solar-Compactor can compact the garbage inside 5 times without being emptied. This Solar Compactor, which gets its compaction power through solar energy, will also minimize the need for garbage trucks.

Read or Print the Turkish Article

Philadelphia, PA – In a city known for being rough, tough and at times grungy – a leaner, greener and just plain cleaner trash can hit the streets.

We know what you’re thinking — a trash can, who cares?

Well the leaner and greener “BigBelly Solar” trash cans crashed the traditional waste management scene starting in May. They were installed to make Philly greener than ever.

Mayor Michael Nutter rolled out the new trash-compacting receptacles amidst hoopla. He mentioned the green benefits and recycling possibilities for some of the 500 machines that now reside between the rivers from Spring Garden to South Street.

By now most of the so-called “ecostations” (fancy speak for super trash cans) have hit the streets. But, the value to Philly might not be very obvious to those people throwing away their trash in the solar-powered compactors.

The real story was about the green benefits — as in saving the city some “green.”

“We’re very excited,” said Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson. “We’re saving taxpayer dollars.”

BigBelly’s should save the city cash. First off, they didn’t cost the city anything because they were purchased using a $2.2 million state recycling grant.

The biggest draw was that the compactors required less manpower. It will take only eight guys to clean out city trash cans — a job that used to require 33 workers, according to Tolson.

And the “ecostations” hold about 200 gallons of trash compared to only 55 gallons for traditional trash cans.

BigBelly Solar crunched some numbers and believe that they will save Philly about $12.9 million over the next 10 years, according to Richard Kennelly, vice president of marketing.

So don’t be afraid next time you go downtown and see some weird box-shaped solar thingy where your traditional wire basket once was – just be sure to recycle.

See the Video or Read the Article