BigBelly Solar Trash Compactor

BigBelly (tm) is a cordless automatic solar trash compactor which reduces collection burden and litter.  The innovative BigBelly™ dramatically cuts emptying frequency and waste handling costs, trash overflow and litter at outdoor sites with high traffic and high trash volume.  This ruggedized trash container/compactor reduces trash volume by a 4:1 to 8:1 compaction ratio, depending on the nature of the trash. BigBelly has LED indicator lights that tell how full it is or optionally it transmits a wireless signal when it is within hours of being full.  A battery stores enough power to run 3 to 4 weeks with no sun and it can maintain a full charge in shaded areas. The BigBelly system has proven successful in various locations and environments from the ski slopes at Vail, to amusement parks in Orlando to the streets of New York city.  Queens, NY has purchased 50 of the compactors. According to press reports it costs about $4500. 

It is manufactured by the privately held Seahorse Power Company of Westborough, MA.  On November 14, Seahorse Power Company closed on $1.1 million in financing to expand marketing, sales and manufacturing of the BigBelly solar powered trash compactor.

Seahorse Power Company, Westborough, MA, USA

More blogs about trash, consumer technology, solar power, energy

Comments

[max]

what a fascinating piece of hardware! this is an excellent site...just came across it...gret job.

[Robert McLeod]

That's one expensive garbage can. Maybe it will make sense in national parks on trails but not for general use.

[Jim from The Energy Blog]

Yes its expensive, but consider the labor saved in a busy location in NYC where they now have to empty a trash can every day. Based on a five day week and .5 hr per can and a reduction of pickups of 75% thats a saving of 97.5 hrs a year. At a labor rate of at least $35/hr with overhead thats a saving of $3412 a year or at $4,500/can, a payback period of only 1.3 years. The union would not like that reduction in hours.

[Robert McLeod]

30 minutes to empty a garbage can? I know you said 'unionized' but come on now.

[Jim]

Ive been reading many blogs and articles on this product , The price range seems all over the place - sold in january for $5,000 , sold in October for $4,300 etc etc , Is there any reason for the price fluctuation ? also ive read that the bomb detection unit is not ready for the market as of yet - where does that leave things with explosive devices being placed in it ? - dont get me wrong im all for this type of product - but i think the maker should not use the public as the guinea pigs for testing and for their good they should agree on a set price .

I would be very interested to see if there are any other issues with this product that were not forseen before its public debut

JJR

[germain schmitz]

i would like to contact James Poss, but i cant find his e-mail address.

anyone can help? (e-mail me)

[germain schmitz]

germain.schmitz on gmail

[WGP]

Where am I going to sleep now?

[b. cousins]

How heavy are the bags on average, if you get a 4:1 compaction ratio? Can they still be lifted without breaking the bag? What is the cubic ft. volume the compacted bag? In other words, If you use a regular trash container that doesn't have a compactor, that uses a 40 gallon bag, and replace it with a compacted 15 gallon bag of compacted waste, is there really very much net gain by compacting? What about water content of the trash and how do you keep the compaction blade on the compactor from becomming full of food waste, etc. How often on average do the units have to be cleaned? It's a great idea but I would like to hear answers to the above questions.

Thank You