Nashville, TN - News Channel 5:
Solar-Powered Trash Cans Come To Nashville
December 5, 2008 11:02 AM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A technology new to Tennessee uses the sun, not electricity or manpower to get rid of garbage.
People produce tons of trash and cities and universities spend tax dollars to pick it up.
If BigBelly can cut down on those pick-ups, it could eat up a lot of the costs.
The solar-powered trash compactor called BigBelly resembles a book drop box and a trash can. It's recognized as a green way to get rid of garbage.
A solar panel stores energy to run the compactor, which smashes 180 gallons of garbage into a regular 32-gallon bag. It can reduce trash pick-ups from twice a day to once a week.
Big Belly "creates efficiencies so that labor can be utilized in other ways that is constructive, opposed to strictly maintenance," said Jeff Recker.
Recker said, in the long run, that will save money.
"You'd be surprised how much trash college students can generate," he said.
BigBelly was tested at Lipscomb University in Nashville.
While on campus, BigBelly would cut down on the manpower used to collect trash and empty trash cans, it wouldn't cost jobs. It would free up employees to other areas that are short staffed.
The way designers built the compactor, it's impossible to get inside the compactor when the door is open.
Chattanooga is testing out the hi-tech trash can. Recker has talked with Nashville and the state of Tennessee about BigBelly.
The first BigBelly was installed in Vail, Colo., in 2004. It can be found across the United States and in 15 other countries.