TIME Magazine:
Bringing Sunshine to Trash... (December 3, 2006)
December 3, 2006 12:00 AM
Jim Poss has a dirty little habit. The alternative-energy entrepreneur is fixated on trash--collecting it, that is. "The U.S. spends more than $45 billion a year to haul away garbage," Poss explains. "That's 180,000 diesel-burning trucks on our streets every day." Plus, those trucks roll, spewing pollution in their wake, whether trash cans are full or empty. As Poss puts it, "I just knew there had to be a better way." So he invented one: the solar-powered BigBelly Cordless Compaction System. Related Articles
More than 300 BigBellys line streets from Massachusetts to California today, and their appeal is easy to see. Once BigBellys have been installed, the stinky, overflowing trash cans found on urban corners are no more, replaced by what looks like a large newspaper-vending machine that collects rather than distributes. Because the unit can hold at least four times as much as a standard can, trash needs to be collected less often...