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Worcester, MA -  It’s not your average trash can.

“It makes it a lot easier for people to utilize the trash.” says one mom at the park with her toddler.

In Worcester it’s time to throw out some old trash cans in favor of seven BigBelly containers.  The solar powered receptacles are popping up at city parks and come with a solar powered trash compactor as well as slots for recycling cans and bottles.

Another park goer says “I think it’s a great idea; it’s unbelievable. I think it’s cool.”

The new receptacles were awarded to the city by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. Worcester was recently awarded a “Green Community” designation by the state.

Julie Jacobson, Assistant City Manager says “It gives a strong message that this is a safe city, it’s a comfortable city, and it has quality of life.”

As the trash collects inside the new bins, an internal sensor powered by the sun tells the city when the bins are full, but that can take some time.  While these green bins are the same size as a regular trash can, they can actually hold five times as much trash.  And that’s good news for the city.

“It cuts down on the number of times a day these receptacles have to be emptied and there’s an automatic cue to the DPW that the trash compactors are full and need to be picked up,” says Jacobson.

And the city says that will help the city cut down on costs.

Watch NECN reporter Melissa Toupin’s Report

Read the following related article:

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette article
  

Richmond, VA – Virginia Commonwealth University has added 15 new solar-powered trash collectors on the Monroe Park and MCV campuses as part of the university’s effort to become a greener place to study and work.

Completely self-powered, the “BigBelly” trash collection system uses solar energy to compact garbage, allowing the bins to hold up to five times more waste than a regular trash bin. VCU officials hope this process will help produce a cleaner environment, reduce labor costs and trash collection trips.

“Since the garbage is compacted, the container doesn’t need to be emptied as often,” said Jacek Gosh, VCU director of sustainability. “This can result in a savings on labor and the use of fossil fuel to drive the vehicles to pick up the garbage.”

According to BigBelly Solar, which produces the units, the compactors come with various green features to help reduce operational costs by 80 percent. The systems feature a wireless monitoring and management capability called CLEAN or Collection Logistics Efficiency and Notification, which can be accessed through any computer with an Internet connection.

VCU purchased two BigBelly compactors — one for each campus — in the fall of 2008 as part of a pilot program. Cities, park systems, corporations and universities around the country have also begun to use the BigBelly Solar waste collection system.

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The City on Lake Superior announced on Thursday the debut of its Toss It Green initiative, to install twenty solar-powered trash compactors along its Lakewalk.

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Stony Brook, NY – With an enrollment of approximately 22,500 students on campus and a ratio of 24 students to every one faculty member, waste management is a major issue. One could argue that there is more trash on campus due to the surplus of students. But after facing millions of dollars in budget cuts, the pile of trash is not because of messy students but rather the decrease in frequency of trash pick-up around campus.

With this year’s $34 million budget shortfall, maintaining proper waste disposal and the changing of garbage cans has reached a heavy decline. President Samuel L. Stanley said, “Filling the gap cannot be done without cutting jobs.”

According to a Facilities and Services Department e-mail, trash pickup was not the only thing hurt by the budget cut. The cleaning of public spaces, classrooms and hallways by custodial services has been reduced to once a week, while the cleaning of offices, suites and cubicles has been diminished to once a month.

The amount of ground service cleaning has also decreased. Lawn mowing frequency, landscaping and street sweeping have been reduced in order to save money.

Throughout all of these cuts, Stony Brook has implemented a new solar trash compactor as a part of its green initiative, joining more than 650 institutions in initiating the development of a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality. The university plans to achieve a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas.

The new trash cans, made by BigBelly Solar, compact approximately four to five garbage cans worth of waste into one. BigBelly, as advertised on its website, drastically lowers the operating costs, fuel consumptions and green house gas emissions by up to 80 percent. Self-powered and requiring no outside electricity to operate, the cans save on labor costs and are energy efficient.

The cans help bridge the gap between the budget shortfalls by reducing the amount of attention that needs to be given to the changing of garbage cans.

These trash cans, which require fewer costs to maintain, are implemented to both manage the necessity of constant garbage changing while saving the University excess spending on custodial service.

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Duluth, MN – Duluth will harness the sun to help deal with trash along the Lakewalk.

The city announced its Toss it Green program Thursday, which will involve placing 20 solar-powered trash and recycling compactors — 10 each — along the popular trail.

A state grant will pay 75 percent of the program’s $54,879 cost.

“These trash containers will hold up to five times as much as traditional containers,” Mayor Don Ness said during an afternoon news conference along the Lakewalk in Leif Erikson Park. “That will result in a 75 percent reduction in our operation costs” by reducing the number of times workers have to empty the containers.

The solar-powered devices — which have batteries for operating at night and on cloudy days — won’t just hold more, they also will tell city workers when they’re full via a wireless communication system. Tom Kasper, supervisor of the city maintenance division, estimates the compactors could save the city thousands of dollars annually.

“Our hope is that eventually we start seeing these systems in many of our other parks,” Kasper said.

The city plans to replace some of the approximately 40 traditional trash cans along the Lakewalk with the solar-powered compactors in the spring, demonstrating the city’s commitment to the environment, city energy coordinator DyAnn Andybur said.

The Lakewalk solar-powered containers won’t be the first in the city. The University of Minnesota Duluth bought four similar containers more than a year ago. They have worked so well that UMD recently ordered four more, Campus Sustainability Coordinator Mindy Granley said.

“They reduce the number of pickups we have to do,” she said. “They help control litter. Before, if trash cans were filled too high the wind would blow the litter around. The students like that they are solar-powered. That’s a cool thing for us to show some leadership in using some new technology.”

It’s also nice that the units have trash and recycling containers side-by-side — as the city’s containers will have — so students can quickly sort trash and recycling in one place, Granley said.

“Previously we didn’t have outside recycling units because of the blow-around litter problem,” she said. “These units are nice and covered and help control that.”

The $41,159 grant to the city came from the Department of Natural Resources Solar Legacy Grant Fund. Created after voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment in 2008, the fund awarded $487,500 in grants during fiscal year 2009 and $470,635 in fiscal 2010, including $12,600 to Ely for hot-air panels for Hidden Valley Chalet and $41,159 for Duluth.

“I think the Duluth project is an interesting project,” said Andrew Korsberg, DNR trail program coordinator who is involved with the solar grants program. “Tying solar energy in with trash units to save money and provide public education along the trail is a good goal.”

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Read the following related articles:

• Read the TreeHugger.com article
• Read or watch Fox 21 News report