Everett, WA – … A BigBelly is the newest addition to Everett parks: a solar-powered garbage guzzler.

Everett parks staff began investigating the combination trash can and compactor as a way to find a few more hours in the day.

For the city’s parks workers, taking out the trash is a time sucker.

Employees spend hours every morning driving as many as 80 miles to empty trash cans, said John Petersen, an assistant director for Parks and Recreation. That’s time they could be spending mowing lawns and trimming bushes. …

In the last 18 months, workers have placed nine at area parks, including two at Harborview Park off Mukilteo Boulevard. The cliff-side park was a good test case since it gets scads of trash from people who come to eat lunch and take in the view, said Russell Dance, a city construction supervisor.

He’s pleased. The cans work beautifully and have had needed zero maintenance. Workers now only need to pick up trash at Harborview twice a week. The cans’ smaller openings and secure lids also thwart squirrels, crows and curious toddlers. …

BigBelly solar compactors save the city money in wages, vehicle hours and fuel. Once the city gets a full complement in place, the city could release 45 tons less carbon dioxide each year. …

Read the Full Article

Read the BLOG

If you had to devise a product designed to succeed in this unique climate, it might be one that makes an eco-friendly, alternative-energy-powered, carbon-reducing, American-made, public-space-beautifying commodity that saves municipalities money and that can be purchased with stimulus funds.

In other words, it might be the BigBelly solar-powered trash compactor. Capital investment and discretionary spending have fallen this year, but BigBelly Solar’s sales are up 80 percent.

It’s progress signifies a truism about this post-bubble economy: Efficiency is the new growth. In this period of universally tight budgets, products and services—even expensive ones—that demonstrate an ability to save resources and money are gaining traction. Said founder Jim Poss: “People who were receptive to us because we’re green are now really receptive to us because we save money, and, by the way, we’re also green.”

Some highlights of the article include:

• Garbage cans are filled mostly with air and the trucks are expensive to operate—about $100 per hour, all costs considered.

• The BigBelly compactor fills up more slowly than a garbage can, it doesn’t need to be emptied as often. Which makes it a potential money-saver when used in remote areas—like ski resorts and state parks—or in urban areas where volumes of trash require frequent pickups.

• Philadelphia leased 500 BigBelly units and placed them downtown. In areas where the BigBelly operates, the city picks up the trash five times per week instead of 17. The city is saving $800,000 a year in labor and fuel costs and will save $12 million over the products’ 10-year lifespan—without any reduction in service. Philadelphia has redeployed workers from collecting trash to recycling initiatives.

• Like the compact fluorescent light bulb, BigBelly compactors are expensive replacements that can justify their high costs through savings generated over time, even in the absence of government incentives.

• As a rule of thumb, says Poss, if the installation of a BigBelly can save an hour of collection time per month on a garbage can, it pays off relatively quickly. “In a city that collects once per day, or in a park system where there’s travel time of 10 to 20 minutes to reach a garbage can and they collect three times per week,” it pays for itself in about three to four years. For a large-scale user who deploys them in a concentrated area, the savings can be greater.

Read the Full Article

Read the Full Slate Article

Print the Article

On average, Americans throw away 30 lbs of trash per week—that’s 245 million tons of municipal solid waste each year. Worse, this number has more than tripled over the last four decades. At the same time, budgets are tightening and costs are spiraling out of control, especially when it comes to fuel, labor, tipping fees and equipment. Cities and towns have responded by increasing the number of receptacles and increasing collection trips. Despite these efforts, trash remains the top nuisance complaint. But a new solution is helping reduce costs and promote sustainability in downtowns across the U.S. and in 20 other countries. “BigBelly” solar-powered trash cans,  which possess integrated recycling units, automatically compact and do not require direct sunlight or wiring. They are also equipped with a wireless monitoring system that sends a signal to alert staff when they need to be emptied. Moreover, their enclosed design keeps pests out, while keeping litter neatly contained and off the ground.

Several cities in the U.S. and abroad including Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Vancouver, are using the device. Philadelphia has done this on a large scale, recently replacing all 700 litter baskets in its downtown and installing 500 “BigBelly” solar compactors and 210 recycling units. The city aims to save as much as $875,000 each year and $13 million over ten years, or about 70 percent on collection costs. Richard Kennelly, a BigBelly Solar executive was recently quoted in the press as saying that Philadelphia is using the compactors in a more comprehensive way than many other cities have been doing. Click here for a case study on Philadelphia and several others that have successfully employed BigBelly.

Along with the solar compactor project, Philadelphia also introduced public space recycling for the very first time and launched a major educational campaign called “Philly Throws Green”. This program is part of Mayor Michael Nutter’s broader initiative, Greenworks Philadelphia, designed to help the city meet its goal of becoming “America’s number one green city.”

See the Article

Pennsylvania – You may find yourself wanting a “BigBelly” like the one on the beach at Gifford Pinchot State Park. It is their new solar trash receptacle/compactor and recycling bin. The bin has been well received by park visitors, and the issue of strewn trash near the beach and concession stand has decreased substantially.

Park Manager, Bill Rosevear stated that when they went to the larger receptacle dumpsters, which had to be placed in the parking lots for the disposal trucks to access them, they began to have problems with visitors not properly disposing of their trash. … This resulted in a Monday morning laborious process by park staff, whom had to comb the beach area and pick up the discarded trash that was left on the ground.

“BigBelly” has transformed that routine.  Now, the visitors become inquisitive with this new fangled sundriven trash receptacle. The tendency is to want to put the discarded item into the trash, and see if they are the ‘lucky winner’ to trigger the compactor to start the compression cycle.

The compactor has a sensor to know when it is full, and that triggers the
compactor. Due to the sun charging the battery, its always ready to work
on cloudy days, rainy weather, and even when it snows. It has multiple
safety features as well.

The compactor is in use in other areas such as Chicago, Philadelphia,
Massachusetts State Parks, Michigan State Parks, Drexel University, Fort Meade MD, and Kutztown University just to name a few.

Now on Monday mornings, Rosevear can use his staffs’ valuable time to work on other projects to improve the park.