Chicago places solar-powered trash compactors in the city

CHICAGO (Scrap Monster): The Daley administration has signed a contract with Massachusetts-based BigBelly Solar to provide at least 400 solar-powered trash compactors in the central business district, where pedestrian traffic is heaviest and trash bins need frequent pickups, suntimes.com reported.

Each unit holds five times the garbage of a normal trash can and has its own built-in sensor that alerts the city when it’s full. There’s also an attached container for recyclables. BigBelly Solar bills itself as the “world’s first integrated” system that uses “renewable power and information technology” to dramatically reduce refuse collection costs.

The machine senses when trash reaches a certain level and triggers the compactor, which is powered by a solar-powered battery. There is also a separate container attached to the BigBelly that can accommodate recyclables, suntimes.com reported.