Watch Yahoo Reporter Troy Wharton's broadcast about BigBelly Solar Compactors at NYC's Union Square Park. (Click on the photo)
GovPro.com: Solar-powered trash compactors deliver savings in Philadelphia
A BigBelly Solar solar-powered compactor and single-stream sidewalk recycling can on a Philadelphia street.
Philadelphia, PA - Replacing 700 wire wastebaskets throughout Philadelphia’s Center City with 500 solar-powered compactors and 210 single-stream sidewalk recycling cans has helped cut transportation and labor costs for city solid waste operations. City truck crews had been making 17 trips each week to empty the wire baskets. With the solar units in place, which are from Needham, Mass.-based BigBelly Solar, the city empties them five times a week, at an annual operating cost of about $720,000, which represents a 70 percent savings.
Performing the 17 collections each week required 33 workers on three shifts, while performing the five collections per week under the new program requires nine workers on a single shift. The other workers have been re-assigned to other tasks, including recycling pickup, which helps keep Philadelphia discards out of landfills.
Said Streets Commissioner Clarina Tolson, “Philadelphia will save $13 million in cumulative collection [costs] over the next 10 years.”
The solar units crush trash using ambient daylight without electric power or direct sunshine, said Richard Kennelly, BigBelly Solar’s vice president of marketing. The compactors work in a variety of locations, he told Govpro.com: “They function well in northern climates, where it’s cloudy in winters, cold and frequently dark. They also work in Phoenix or Los Angeles, where a lot of trash receptacles might be near tall buildings and on the north side of the building where they never get direct sunlight and are always in the shade.” An electric motor that uses the same amount of energy as a small Christmas tree light bulb generates 1,200 pounds of compacting pressure, Kennelly added.
Because the solar units require fewer trips to empty them, waste fleets require less fuel and produce less carbon emissions and congestion. Less wear and tear on trucks and roads are other benefits of shifting to solar compactors, said Kennelly.
Wireless technology alerts managers when the solar units are becoming full, added Kennelly. “The units are networked wirelessly so that each machine knows when it’s getting full, and it communicates that status through a text message to a central computer server. That way, city officials can log in from any computer and see in real time how full all of the solar units are in the system. Fleet managers can schedule routes and collections based on real-time information. The solar compactor is really a robot that’s self-powered and communicates in real time how full it’s getting.” A case study has more information on the Philadelphia solar compactor installation.
Winchester, MA: Solar-powered trashcans keep sidewalks clean
By Brad Petrishen/bpetrish@cnc.com
Winchester Star
Oscar the Grouch could never live inside this trashcan. It uses solar power to compact trash when it gets full -- making life much easier for DPW employees, but harder for grouchy green stowaways. Photo by Brad Petrishen
Called “BigBellys,” these high-tech contraptions are trashcans that use solar power to compact rubbish.
The trashcan has a special solar-powered censor that detects and compacts trash when it senses the can is full.
DPW Business Manager LeeAnn McGahan said the cans will pay for themselves over time because the department doesn’t have to collect trash as often.
“We used to go six days per week to those locations, but now we go on the seventh day only,” she said.
McGahan said the department hopes to install seven or eight big bellies in order to see a significant saving in overtime for employees.
She said she hopes businesses may be willing to co-sponsor bellies in exchange for advertising on the cans.
“It really approves the aesthetics of the downtown area,” she said of the barrels, which also include recycling receptacles. “Things aren’t overflowing like they used to be. It’s much neater and cleaner.”
The bellies are one of a few new solar-powered contraptions in town, including solar-powered vehicle speed indicators on Pond Street near the Lynch Elementary School as well as a few solar-powered blinking yellow lights downtown.
Cornell Daily Sun: Solar Trash Cans Compact Garbage On the Commons
ITHACA, NY - The Ithaca Commons is sporting new devices for green waste collection: solar-powered trash cans.
“From a Board of Public Works perspective, the BigBelly has performed well,” said Kristin Lewis, operations manager of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and owner of Morris’ Men’s Wear, which is on the Commons.
“They have been received very well by the public,” she added.
Regular trash, with its assortment of items ranging from used tissues to empty bags, is mostly air. The solar cans, which are manufactured by Massachusetts-based BigBelly Solar, reduce the resources devoted to waste collection and transportation by compacting trash inside each can.
The cans use a compactor plate powered by a 30-watt solar panel and a 12-volt motorcycle battery.
Officials said the two cans currently on the Commons seem to be living up to their potential.
“It doesn’t attract bees or smell so you … never know you’re sitting next to a trash can,” Lewis said. “I am very proud to be involved in what I believe is the future of trash collection.”
“We try not to have potential customers look at how much the BigBelly costs” but look at the potential savings, which often equate to a two- to four- year payback, Dalton said. Lewis said that the energy savings from eliminating unnecessary garbage-truck trips, as well as that the cans have “not required any maintenance other than a rinsing once or twice.” Each BigBelly stores energy until the can reaches a certain fullness, at which point the unit comes out of ‘sleeping mode’ and compresses the trash with 1200 lbs of force, said Rob Dalton, director of business development at BigBelly. By comparison, home trash compactors generally exert between 2000 and 5000 lbs. After compression, the can is ready to receive more trash. BigBelly cans need to be emptied less frequently, the company says. It claims that 80% of garbage truck trips can be eliminated when BigBelly cans replace regular ones in a neighborhood, cutting down on pollution and labor associated with collection. The company’s website prominently asserts that the City of Philadelphia expects savings of $13 million over ten years from a complete switch to the BigBellies. A cost-savings calculator on BigBelly’s website estimates that Cornell’s campus, with more than 250 trash cans, would save seven to eight million dollars and half a million gallons of fuel over ten years. It takes one hour of sunlight for the solar panels to give the battery sufficient charge for several weeks, Dalton said. The panels still provide enough charge even in the winter or in deep shade, he said. Extra energy provided by the panels has allowed the company to expand its “capabilities to [include monitoring] real-time waste levels” and to send text messages to workers alerting them when a can is nearly full. [...] Solar-powered trash collection appears to be rising in popularity, riding the wave of consumers’ increasing preference for ‘sustainable’ products and practices. Waste Management recently began selling a solar compactor and has placed cans at prominent locations, such as the Alamo and Fenway Park.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette: Waste cans talking trash
BINS CONVERSE ELECTRONICALLY
WORCESTER, MA - In the world of high-tech, gee-whiz gadgetry, parking meters and public trash bins don’t typically figure prominently.
But times are changing downtown.
The airwaves behind City Hall now are crowded with wireless data transmissions, e-mails and text messages sent by, well, Web-surfing trash cans and parking meters.
A solar-powered trash can and recycling bin behind City Hall.
Not to be outdone by chatty, tech-savvy parking meters, new solar-powered trash compactor bins at City Hall Plaza and Worcester Common text city officials when they’re full and need to be emptied.
Topped by a rounded polycarbonate bubble protecting a 30-watt solar panel, the BigBelly Solar trash compactors made by a Newton company of the same name resemble an android from a “Star Wars” film — an impression heightened by the flashing LED status light that changes from green to yellow to red as the compactor’s belly grows full.
When first introduced to the market in 2004, the manufacturer was looking for a way that the trash cans could alert garbage collectors that they were full and needed to be emptied. Text messaging appeared to be the answer. An earlier version of the BigBelly made a debut behind City Hall in 2006.
In September, the city got seven BigBelly compactors through a state environmental grant, some of which have been installed at Elm Park and Green Hill Park.
Mr. Richard Kennelly [BigBelly Solar's vice president of marketing] noted that the compactors hold five times as much trash as a standard city trash can. Because they have to be emptied less often, they save on labor and fuel costs. Philadelphia replaced all 700 of its downtown litter baskets with 500 compactors, he said.
“By doing that, the city cut trash collection trips from 17 trips a week to five times a week. Because of that, they took 24 of 33 trash workers and moved them over to staff a recycling program that they couldn’t have afforded otherwise,” Mr. Kennelly said.
Lexington installs new solar-powered trash bins
The town has placed 14 new BigBelly solar trash compactors and recycling units around Lexington.
Lexington, MA — The town of Lexington has purchased 14 new joint solar-powered trash and recycling bins to cut down on energy costs and promote recycling.
The bins, called BigBelly solar waste compactors paired with recycling units, were purchased with grant funds, which became available to Lexington as one of 34 towns in Massachusetts to qualify as a “Green Community.” To qualify, Lexington adopted five required criteria, including the development of an Energy Reduction Plan for reducing energy consumption by 20 percent by 2013.
Four of the new eco-friendly bins have been placed in Lexington Center, and another nine have been placed in various other locations around town, including one at Lincoln Field.
According to Lexington’s Superintendent of Environmental Services Robert Beaudoin, the new bins “raise awareness to recycle.” The units have a small opening for recyclable bottles and cans.
Lexington recycles approximately 55 percent of its trash, according to Beaudoin.
The units also have a trash compactor that allows for less frequent pick-ups by the Department of Public Works (DPW). According to a DPW brochure, “one Big Belly unit can replace up to five traditional trash receptacles resulting in fewer trips to collect refuse, reducing fuel and truck costs, traffic noise pollution and scattered street litter.”
“We already know they were successful because we are picking up trash less frequently each week,” said Beaudoin.
Trash pickups with the old bins in the center used to occur about once a day. Now the bins only have to be attended to once a week, according to Beaudoin.
Beaudoin thinks the look of the new bins is sleeker and nicer too.
“Compared to the other units, these are neater, and they hold more trash,” he said.
