Kitsap County, WA – The installation of 80 high-tech trash compactors — expected to save Kitsap County more than $100,000 a year — is nearly finished with units in 14 county parks.

The BigBelly Solar trash compactors, invented by a Bainbridge Island man, are coming to Kitsap County after catching on in cities throughout the country. They can be spotted, for example, near the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas; in Chicago’s Millennium Park; and in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

“With all 80 installed, we should save about $48,000 a year in truck expenses, such as fuel and maintenance costs,” said Eric Baker, special projects director for the Kitsap County commissioners. “On top of that, by not having to pick up the garbage as often, we will save $61,000 in labor that can be diverted to the maintenance and operation of the parks.”

The trash compactors are about the size of a typical 40-gallon garbage can that you might see in public places, but they look more like a mailbox. Each one can hold 150 gallons of trash, thanks to the automatic compaction powered by the sun.

Because of its compaction at 1,200 pounds of force, the new garbage units can eliminate three or four normal pickups before the BigBelly must be emptied, according to information provided by the company.

The county bought the 80 trash compactors using $400,000 of its $2.3 million energy-efficiency stimulus grant. Other portions of the grant will be used to improve energy efficiency in county buildings.

The total cost of nearly $5,000 per unit includes the expense of building a concrete slab for each one and the installation of a recycling bin alongside the trash compactor, Baker said.

County parks that will have them, along with the specific number of units, are: Island Lake, 11; Horseshoe Lake, 9; Long Lake and Wildcat Lake, 8 each; Salsbury Point, Buck Lake, South Kitsap Regional and Silverdale Waterfront, 7 each; Kingston, 6; Point No Point, 5; Fairgrounds, 2; and Arness, Kola Kole and Village Greens Golf Course, 1 each. …

The president and CEO of BigBelly Solar is Jim Poss of Bainbridge Island. The company’s headquarters is in Needham, Mass., with its manufacturing operations in Arlington Vt.

BigBelly compactors can be found in 17 countries and nearly every state.

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A growing number of cities and municipalities are testing solar-powered trash compactors as a way to go green and save some green.

Communities in 46 states, as well as some state parks and colleges, are replacing regular trash cans, according to Richard Kennelly, vice president of BigBelly Solar marketing, which manufactures the devices.

Officials in states including California, Arizona and Pennsylvania say the trash compactors save long-term costs by reducing the number of trash pickups. …

The newer models can send text messages to a central server when the cans are full to “minimize miles” in the trash pickup route, Kennelly says. …

Pasadena, California, has deployed 12 of the containers over the past two years and bought 40 more in November that will be put in place this year, says Gabriel Silva, public works environmental program manager.

The trash compactors have helped beautify the area, said Gina Tleel, executive director for South Lake Business Association.

When Arizona State University began using the compactors, Refuse Coordinator Ted Woods doubted most students would use them.

“Boy, I had to eat my words, they work great,” says Woods, who said the containers have reduced the daily trash pickup to once a week.

The university received six donated compactors from Pepsi in 2006 and added 10 units in 2008, said Bonny Bentzin, director of university sustainability practices.

The compactors were installed at Georgetown University in October 2009, says William del Vecchio, manager of recycling and solid waste disposal at the university.

“Personally, I’m glad to see the university continuing its push for sustainability efforts,” said student Calen Angert, who uses the cans.

Student Nora White, who has used the bins on campus at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, says they are a good reminder to recycle. “With them right beside each other, it puts it in your consciousness,” she says.

Some states, including California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington, got Department of Energy grants to purchase their solar-powered compactors.

Philadelphia used its grant to replace 700 litter baskets with 500 of the trash compactors and 210 sidewalk recycling cans in April 2009, [Streets Commissioner Clarena] Tolson says.

Not only have the containers helped with the green initiative, but they also reduced trash pickups from 17 times per week to five, she says.

As a result, employees have been reassigned where they are needed most.

“Philadelphia will save $13 million in cumulative collection over the next 10 years,” Tolson says. …

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DEPARTMENT OF STREETS, PHILADELPHIA

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2008

• No. of downtown receptacles: 700
• No. of employees responsible: 33
• Weekly collections: 17

2009

• No. of downtown solar-powered compactors: 500
• No. of solar-powered recycling units: 210
• No. of employees responsible: 9
• Weekly collections: 5

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Trash compactors squeeze 70% out of operational costs in one year.

Philadelphia may be the City of Brotherly Love, but it’s also the nation’s fourth-densest urban area. As the social and geographic hub of the original 13 colonies, the city’s a popular tourist destination all year round. But in the hot and muggy summer months, numbers swell as people wander from the Liberty Bell to Independence Hall to the home of Betsy Ross, among other attractions.

All that pedestrian traffic creates a massive challenge for the agency tasked with keeping streets, sidewalks, and other rights of way clean. The volume of waste in the Center City District required 700 trash receptacles that were emptied 17 times/week via four collection routes. Keeping up took 33 employees working three full-time shifts and cost the city $2.3 million annually.

Despite tourism revenues, shortly after his election in 2007 Mayor Michael Nutter asked every department to prepare operational budgets 10%, 20%, and 30% below current levels in anticipation of a $1 billion shortfall over five years. In response, last year the department tried replacing some traditional garbage cans with trash compactors and companion single-stream recycling units. The department “bought” the equipment through a three-year lease-to-own finance program with the manufacturer, BigBelly Solar in Needham, Mass., that eliminates an up-front capital expenditure.

The 300-pound galvanized sheet metal compactor units have a bin volume of 32 gallons.

The compactors are self-powered, requiring no wiring or external electrical connection. They automatically compact the waste when it reaches a certain level. As users deposit waste, it falls into the low-density polyethylene bin inside the machine. When the level of waste eventually rises above the top of the inner bin, the waste interrupts an electric eye beam, triggering the motor to compact the waste down into the bin, making room for more waste.

Users can continue to deposit additional waste during compaction cycles. The machines have an insertion hopper that prevents hands from reaching into the compaction area, and they do not lock users out during compaction.

The process repeats automatically — as needed — until the machine is ready for collection, typically holding about 160 gallons of uncompacted waste. At that point, the LED light indicator on the front panel turns yellow, and the machine sends a wireless message to a central computer server, notifying staff that the unit is ready for collection. The wireless monitoring and notification system uses text-message technology to signal a password-protected Web-hosted database that allows the viewing of machine status and fullness levels from any computer with Internet access. That, in turn, allows managers to ensure that the waste is collected when needed.

The machines continue to receive more waste and run automatic compaction cycles even after signaling they are ready for collection. When the machines are entirely full the LED indicator turns red, notifying staff that immediate collection is required.

“The wireless monitoring system has made it very easy to manage our inventory all across Center City,” explains Scott McGrath, the department’s recycling coordinator. “The ability to sort through historical data by collection route and discover collection patterns gives us valuable and actionable information.”

Collection crews empty the compactor units by opening the front door with a key, removing the inner plastic bin, and pulling the liner bag full of waste. After replacing with a new liner bag, crews slide the bin inside the machine, and the LED indicator resets to green.

In just one year the department had cut its weekly collections by more than two-thirds, at an annual operating cost of about $720,000. Performing five weekly collections under the new program requires only nine workers on a single shift; the other workers have been reassigned to trucks that collect household recycling.

By entering into the financing arrangement, the city has no up-front capital cost and will realize collection cost savings in the first year of approximately $850,000. Additionally, the department expects to save nearly $13 million in cumulative collection cost savings over the next 10 years, and the annual operating costs of collecting in Center City is expected to drop by 70%.

The department has since purchased an additional 220 compactors and 100 new companion recycling units, bringing the total to 720 compactors and 310 recycling units. They were installed this spring, according to McGrath.

Then, in October, the department learned that part of a $14.1 million energy-efficiency formula grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 would fund the purchase of 260 more units for $973,000. The new units will be placed along commercial corridors later this year.

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WM Solar Powered Trash Compactors cut the need for trash pickup by up to 80 percent, which reduces collection costs, fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. The compactors are self-powered by built-in solar panels. About the same size as a standard 35-gallon trash barrel, each compactor provides five times the capacity of a traditional trash receptacle. When the unit reaches capacity, sensors trigger an internal compactor that flattens the contents, converting 180 gallons of waste into easy-to-collect bags. A wireless system then signals that the unit is ready to be picked up. The compactors are suited for municipalities and high-traffic facilities, as well as busy intersections, public parks, city streets, sporting events and other public spaces.

Waste Management, Houston, Texas

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