Philadelphia, PA - KYW Newsradio:
Philadelphia Begins Rollout of ''BigBelly'' Trash Compactor Receptacles
April 30, 2009 02:29 PM
One day after Mayor Nutter laid out his plan to make Philadelphia the "greenest" city in America by 2015, he checked out the installation of the first of hundreds of solar-powered litter baskets around center city.
The first set of trash cans, called "BigBellys," went in at 15th and JFK Boulevard. Jackson Patterson, from BigBelly Solar in Boston, says that each receptacle has an automated trash compactor hidden inside:
"It's a little bigger than a regular city trash can but it holds four to five times what a regular trash can will hold."
Patterson says many municipal litter baskets are not very efficient: "They really only hold about 10-12 pounds of trash. It's all air. It's mostly cups."
And a traditional litter basket needs to be emptied about five times more often than a "BigBelly" can.
Philadelphia streets commissioner Clarena Tolson says the 500 trash compactors and 210 recycling units cost a total of $2.2 million, entirely covered by a state recycling grant.
And deputy mayor Rina Cutler (leaning on trash receptacle in photo) points out that the city qualified for the state grant based on the success of its curbside recycling program -- including the "single stream initiative," begun by the Nutter administration:
"You could say we 'recycled' the money."
The new trash receptacles will be installed in center city, from river to river between Spring Garden and South Streets.