Palm Springs, CA - The Desert Sun:
BigBelly compactors Approved By Council
August 1, 2008 03:45 PM
Palm Springs, CA - Solar-powered trash compactors are coming soon to the city of Palm Springs — just don't try and cram your pizza box inside.
Ten BigBelly Solar Compactors were approved for purchase by the Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday.
The trash and recycle bins are capable of holding up to 150 gallons of trash, about five times more than the city's standard trash cans.
They look and work like mailboxes. People pull down the handle to deposit their trash. Sensors inside detect when the trash is near capacity and then it's smashed to maximize space. When a container is full, city workers can extract a 40-pound block of trash.
Last year, the city tested four of the BigBelly compactors in downtown Palm Springs for 90 days.
During that time, city workers said instead of emptying the trash containers daily, the BigBelly compactors required emptying every third day, according to a city staff report.
But there was a problem.
“The use was too great,” City Manager David Ready told the council on Wednesday. “It was overburdening these.”
Large and odd-size trash also didn't fare well with the BigBellies. Pizza boxes and to-go containers didn't fit in the slot, forcing people to place their trash on top of the compactor or next to it — just as they do with the city's regular trash containers.
Ready said the new BigBellies will probably be placed in uptown because the trash generated there is smaller than in downtown. He said that because downtown's BigBellies were so popular, there was also a “smell issue” because there was so much use.
Mayor Pro Tem Ginny Foat, however, commented that the BigBellies may not get the use they were designed for if they are placed in uptown.
“Is it because of the pizza boxes mentioned in the staff report?” she asked.
Ready said no decision on the exact locations has been made, but added the city could purchase more.
BigBelly Solar in Massachusetts developed the BigBelly, which has been featured on the Science Channel. The first BigBelly was installed in 2004 in Vail, Colo. Other cities with the BigBelly include Boston, San Diego and Baltimore.