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Bigbelly the solar powered garbage Compactor

// January 27th, 2008 // cool, environment, random, tech

Bigbelly

Originally uploaded by Declan!

I found yet another reason why I love California. While taking care of some errands yesterday I came across a strange looking garbage can. What I found is that it was actually a garbage compactor, and even cooler is that its solar powered!

This is a great for the environment as compacted trash will take up less space in the dumps. The only possible issue I see is the ability to sort through compacted trash for bottles, cans, and other recycleable goods.

I’m sure its pissing off the hordes of homeless people in Santa Monica that go through the garbage cans for cans and what not.

http://www.bigbelly.com

Popularity: 10% [?]

2 Responses to “Bigbelly the solar powered garbage Compactor”

1. Ernest says:

   January 28, 2008 at 11:23 am

   Hello,

   Yes the Solar Trash Compactor is a neat idea. The city was having volume and litter issues at the busy bus location that the BigBelly is located at. They would usually have to pickup the prior open bins two or three times per day. The BigBelly unit can contain up to 200gallons of trash allowing them to pickup every two days or so. Recyclables can be separated by installing a separate container beside the compactor just for recyclables instead of crushing these in the compactor, which is what some cities do. More information is available at http://www.bigbelly.com on this.
2. Jim says:

   January 28, 2008 at 12:54 pm

   Thank you for writing about this. We like the BigBelly too!

   I had to mention this: Today, garbage trucks in the U.S. burn over 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel each year collecting trash! That’s 20 million gallons a week. The BigBelly reduces collection frequency by a factor of 5. Someday, we’ll be so much more efficient (and cost-effective) through the use of solar powered compaction.

   Did you know that the compaction ratio of plastic bottles is 15:1? Indeed, the BigBelly will help make recycling a profitable venture. And when that happens, we will become much better at it.