I saw something new this morning walking through Union Square that I hadn’t seen before — a solar powered trash compactor!
Solar Trash Compactor in Union Square
Apparently, they’ve been around for nearly a year but I just noticed yesterday. The site UnionSquareNYC.org says, “Big Belly’s Greening Union Square – USP is the first business improvement district in NYC to pilot the use of Big Belly solar-powered trash compactors. Three units were placed at some of the district’s busiest corners at 14th St & B’way, 14th St & University Place, and 17th St & B’way to gauge their effectiveness. The compactors have already made a huge impact by reducing garbage collection frequency by nearly 70% at these corners.”
Solar Trash Compactor Panels
Big Belly, the company installing the compactors, put its first model on the streets in 2004 in Vail, Colorado. Philly just unveiled 500 of their solar compactors last week. Read about it here: http://bit.ly/10NAaQ
Big Belly itself can be found at http://bigbellysolar.com/ and the site is full of interesting facts about the product. For instance:
- Compaction Ratio: BigBelly holds up to five times the volume of ordinary trash receptacles
- Displaced Trips: BigBelly can displace four out of five pick ups
- Greenhouse Gas Eliminated: 80% reduction
- Capacity: BigBelly can hold 150 gallons of trash
- Force: BigBelly’s compaction mechanism exerts 1,200 pounds of force
- Energy Efficiency: BigBelly gets 100% of its energy from the sun and uses less than 5 watt hours/day
- BigBelly can operate for a day on the equivalent energy it takes to make a piece of toast!
- BigBelly can operate for a week on the equivalent energy it takes to make a pot of coffee!
- BigBelly can operate for four months on the equivalent energy it takes to drive a Prius one mile!
- BigBelly can operate for eight years on the equivalent energy it takes to drive a garbage truck one mile!
Every time I read the words “Big Belly” I feel bad about myself.
BigBelly is the world’s first and only solar powered trash compacting receptacle that works anywhere in the environment. It not only has an amazing compaction ratio, but it can communicate with you to let you know when it’s full! Fewer truck journeys equal fewer greenhouse gases, less dependency on foreign oil, lower collection & truck maintenance costs and less traffic congestion. Visit http://www.decgreen.com for more information on this wonderful product.
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