Winston-Salem is using the sun to crush trash downtown.
The city has purchased two solar-powered public trash cans that double as compactors. The cans, which hold 32 gallons of trash -- 12 more than the 20 gallons held by regular trash cans -- are aptly named "BigBellys," said Johnnie Taylor, the director of the city's sanitation department.
The BigBellys use solar power to compact trash as it sits inside cans on the street. The two cans bought by the city are both downtown -- one at the corner of Fourth and Trade streets, the other at the corner of First and Church streets.
"We're testing it," Taylor said. "We're doing an empirical test just to see how well it actually works."
Larger cities, including Philadelphia, Boston and New York started using the solar-powered compactors as early as 2006, in an effort to save money. Smaller cities, including Somerville, Mass., also have started using the compactors in small numbers.
"It looks like it could free up crews to do other things, like additional cleaning in the city's planters," Taylor said.
The solar-powered, compacting cans cost more than regular trash cans -- a BigBelly costs about $3,900, compared with a regular can, which costs $1,000 to $1,500.
Taylor said that Winston-Salem officials are trying to determine if the upfront cost is worth the long-term savings. The compactors reduce collection routes because they do not need to be emptied as often as regular trash cans. Taylor said he expects the cans to save on compacting costs as well, because they compact trash using solar energy rather than electrical power.
Taylor said he did not know if the city would purchase additional solar-powered trash cans.
"It's not anything that we're planning to do anything more with, as far as purchasing other ones, at this time," he said. "We're just gathering data."
lgraff@wsjournal.com
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