It's what some big cities have been turning to help cut into some big budget shortfalls.
BigBelly.
Big what?
Baltimore only has to look up 95 to find out what I'm talking about. Philadelphia, a city known for its love of cheesesteaks, soft pretzels and cannolis, is embracing the solar-powered trash compactors called BigBelly.
Facing a $1.4 billion, five-year budget deficit, the City of Brotherly Love estimates it will save $875,000 a year with the compactors. In the largest rollout yet, Philadelphia has replaced 700 downtown trash bins with 500 of the high-tech compactors, which use solar energy to condense trash - cutting down collection trips by 75 percent.
Sound like an idea Mayor Dixon?
BigBelly's are solar-powered 32-gallon compactors, which can hold 150 to 200 gallons of trash and the devices are being piloted by cities in 40 states.
In Philadelphia, the cans also have a wireless monitoring system that notifies the city when they're full. ...
Some in the big city public works business estimate the compactors pay for themselves in 18 months.
Just down the road from here in Fort Meade the NSA has made the BigBelly move.
BigBelly street corner compactors are also in Boston, New York and Chicago.