Alternative Energy eMagazine:
Put the Squeeze on Trash & Recycling Collection Costs
August 4, 2009 06:00 AM
Trash collection is an expensive, time-consuming business – and a necessity for public health and safety. The City of Philadelphia had been making 17 trips each week to empty 700 wire baskets throughout Center City, at an annual cost of about $2.3 million. After replacing those 700 receptacles with 500 solar-powered compactors and 210 recycling units, the City collects only 5 times a week, at an annual operating cost of about $720,000 – representing a 70% savings. Performing those 17 collections each week required 33 workers on 3 shifts, while performing the 5 collections per week under the new program requires only 9 workers on a single shift. The other
workers have been re-assigned to other, more productive tasks. The deployment plan was a comprehensive package including a 3-year financing program, a 4-year extended warranty and service plan, and a wireless monitoring system on all 500 units. ...