Solar Trash Compactors Texting City Workers

City workers in Lodi and Santa Cruz California are receiving text messages from garbage cans. No, these workers are not lonely and in need of friends, they're being told by each "Big Belly" solar compactor/trash can when they need to be emptied.

Each Big Belly compactor costs $4,000. The city of Lodi California received stimulus money to purchase the Big Bellys and expect them to start paying for themselves in 2 to 21/2 years.

When the trash cans have compacted enough trash and are at full capacity, they send a text message to city workers that they need to be emptied. The workers can now make better use of their time without having to stop and check each can to see if its full.

Philadelphia estimates it will save approximately $13 Mil. over a 10 yr period using the solar compactors.

A few "Big Belly" Facts:

• Compaction Ratio: BigBelly holds up to five times the volume of ordinary trash receptacles
• 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 week on the equivalent energy it takes to make a pot of coffee!
• The first BigBelly was installed in Vail, Colorado in 2004.
• BigBelly Solar has over 40 distributors in the US and around the world.
• The newest model of BigBelly is 200 lbs. lighter and has a 33% smaller footprint than its predecessor.
• BigBelly is made in the USA!
• The standard black machine is made with recycled ABS plastic.
• Some of the high profile BigBelly locations are:
  
  • Fenway Park (home of The Boston Red Sox)
  • Boston's Faneuil Hall
    
  • Baltimore Inner Harbour
  • The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas
  • Chicago Millennium Park
  • Harvard University
  • Walden Pond (of Henry David Thoreau fame)