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Delray Beach is one of the first communities in the area to use solar powered trash cans. The solar trash cans are equipped with sensors that when the bin is full, it compresses the trash. Delray Beach uses them in two of their public parks. The city has four of them in use, with nine more on the way.

Delray’s Sustainability Officer Rich Reade says they pay for themselves, saving the city $15,000 a year.

“That saves not only on personnel costs, benefit costs but it also saves on fuel, it saves on maintenance of our trucks and different equipment, and then it saves on the liners. We don’t have to put liners in these devices,” said Rich Reade.

According to waste management, normal bins will sometimes overflow before pickup, the solar powered ones are sealed so that’s impossible.

Before these bins were placed in places like Miller Park, garbage pick-up was 3-5 times a week. Now, they’re down to a few times a month. This saves the city money, but also allows for better use of their staff. “Because we’ve been in such a tight budget over the past couple of years, it allows us to shift our resources to areas where we might’ve been more deficient,” said Reade.

Delray isn’t the only spot to catch on, Jupiter is experimenting with them as well. Delray Beach officials say other cities have called inquiring about their effectiveness, namely cost effectiveness.”Everyone’s looking at it, everyone’s looking for new ways because of the budget & reduced staff levels,” said Reade.

Not to mention the reduction in the carbon footprint.

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Jupiter, FL — Collect, crunch, call.

That’s the job of the high-tech trash bin perched on State Road A1A at Marcinski Road.

The new solar-powered container has a sensor that turns on the compactor when the bin is close to full. When the chest-high barrel is finally full of compacted trash, it emails the trash collection department for a pickup.

Regular trash containers in public places must be picked up between three and five times a week. They often overflow, scattering aluminum cans and food containers down the sidewalk, said Jeff Sabin, a government affairs manager for Waste Management.

The new green containers are covered, and because of the compacting, pickups are required less often, he said.

“We’re reducing the carbon footprint,” Sabin said.

Waste Management’s contract with Jupiter to collect residential and commercial trash includes public areas such as the beach on A1A. Fewer collections save the company money, Sabin said.

Delray Beach has its own trash collection service. The city negotiated with Waste Management in April for four containers and will get six more in the next month. The city also plans on buying three more, bringing the total to 13. They will be placed on the beach, Atlantic Avenue and in public parks, said Rich Reade, the city’s sustainability officer.

Open containers have to picked up on a daily basis. The new ones only have to be picked up twice a month, Reade said.

“(Delray Beach) will save about $15,000 a year. That’s a return on our investment in about four years,” Reade said.

The 300-pound boxes, made by Newton, Mass.-based BigBelly Solar, have one side for recycling, the other side for trash.

The solar panel on the top powers a 12-volt battery. When the trash compactor turns on, which can be as often as once an hour, it hums like an automatic dishwasher. A cell-phone-like device notifies a website set up for the municipality when the container is full.

“I’ve noticed much more bottles and plastic cups in the containers. It’s been a big boost for recycling,” said Jennifer Wilster, environmental communications outreach manager for Melbourne. This city in Brevard County has 15 containers in downtown areas and parks.

The containers are increasingly popular in cash-strapped cities seeking to save money in trash collection. Philadelphia has bought 900 and Chicago about 500. Florida locations using the containers include Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Atlantic University and Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, said Matt Volpi, BigBelly’s director of product marketing.

“Communities save on gas. Plus, the covered containers keep away seagulls and – in some places around the country – bears,” Volpi said.

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They’re talkin’ trash on the streets of Inverness these days.

Last week, the city installed six BigBelly solar-powered trash-compacting receptacles downtown.

Who knew tossing your empty soda cans or sandwich wrappers could be so much fun — or so high-tech?

“They compact five times as much trash as a regular trash can, and they’re smart,” said Katie Cottrell, director of public works.

How smart are they?

When they get full and need to be emptied, they send an email via a website to let city employees know it’s time to come empty them.

“From the website, we can see all of the cans,” Cottrell said. “Before, we had city employees going out and checking them every day.”

Three of the receptacles are equipped with recycling bins for plastic, glass, paper and cans.

Features include:

+ Enclosed design to keep critters out and odor in.

+ Capacity of 180 gallons of waste.

+ A motorcycle chain and motorcycle battery run the compactor.

+ Solar panel made from the same material as the glass in a hockey rink (so it can deflect a speeding puck).

+ Shell made from recycled aluminum and plastic parts made from recycled car bumpers.

According to an MSNBC report, in 2009, the city of Philadelphia replaced 700 downtown trash cans with 500 of the high-tech solar compactors, cutting down collection trips by 75 percent.

Facing a $1.4 billion, five-year budget deficit, Philly officials estimated they would save $875,000 a year with the compactors.

The BigBellys can also be seen on the streets of San Antonio and Dallas, Texas; Fairfax, Va.; Boston’s Fenway Park; areas of Chicago and Baltimore — and now Inverness.

“We were going to have to refurbish the (existing) trash cans anyway,” said Ken Koch, Inverness director of development services. “They were getting pretty nasty.”

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Philadelphia, PA – New York magazine named Philly’s BigBelly Solar trashcans a favorite recent urban invention in its current issue on Urban Global Design, in which our smart solar trash cans stand proudly alongside contemporary architecture like a Calatrava bridge in Venice. How do you like that?

The BigBelly Solar trashcans have been standing on Center City street corners since 2009…  The city says the BigBelly cans will save taxpayers money and some add curbside recycling capacity. Beyond Center City, neighborhoods from Southwest Center City to Castor Gardens like the BigBelly cans enough to fundraise for them independently.

I [have] become a big fan of the BigBelly compactors. I think their novelty makes people take notice and consider using a receptacle instead of tossing trash over their shoulder. The best ones by far are the BigBelly cans installed on South Street. They’re dressed up as trash-eating critters thanks to bright vinyl graphics courtesy of the Mural Arts Big Picture program. The inspiration: “litter bugs.” The critter BigBellys were unveiled this spring, but in case you haven’t been on South Street between 2^nd and 10^th, here are a few of the designs to brighten your Friday.

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See the Urban Global Design Article (go to slide #5)