City Employs Sun For Solar Trash Compacting

You may have seen them along Main Street north of Washington Street — large brown cans sitting in pairs along the red brick portion of the west sidewalk, marked with a recycling symbol and a “man” discarding a piece of trash.

OK, so they’re a combination garbage and recycling canister, easy enough to discern from the illustrations. But each — in front of , and the new — has a solar panel on top, which, after an initial investment, is poised to save the city money and promote recycling, sustainability and workforce efficiency.

Middletown joins large and small cities across the state, and universities, according to Rick Gaudette, Northeast sales director for Big Belly Solar.

Each BigBelly Solar Trash and Recycling Compaction System cost $5,000, according to Kim O’Rourke, , and were purchased with Community Development Block Grant funds.

“The city is striving toward more recycling bins on Main Street to help people recycle easier,” O’Rourke says. Last year the city installed 10 new colorfully painted 55-gallon oil drums-cum-recycling canisters along Main Street designed by artist Pierre Sylvain, which have become both popular and frequently used — by individuals disposing of recyclables and those looking to score a few extra bucks collecting bottles and cans for their deposits.

These BigBelly cans takes up as much space as an ordinary trash can —but the capacity is five times greater, company literature says. For single-stream recycling, the BigBelly compacting recycler delivers 4:1 compaction, ideal for high-traffic recycling areas, such as downtown Middletown.

“The trash compactors keep the trash contained and are able to hold more trash, ultimately leading to less pick-ups and saving money.  It also has a computer hook-up so we can monitor the trash in the bin,” O’Rourke says.

"We have Bridgeport and Hartford installed and New Haven in discussions," Gaudette says. "For smaller cities, we have West Hartford, Greenwich, Hamden, Manchester, Middlebury, Branford and New Canaan. For universities, we have units in Southern Connecticut State, Eastern Connecticut State, Quinnipiac and Yale."

On going discussions with the state will hopefully allow us to get more out so municipalities can comply with the public space recycling ordinances that come into effect this year.

Featuring “Smart-Grid” technology, BigBelly Solar enables the city to analyze how full or empty each device is at all times via access to a web-based dashboard monitoring system, according to the Eco Green literature.

But how do they work?

"The solar panel extracts energy from the sun and transfers the power to a battery for storage, according to Eco Green. "On-board controls software takes fullness input from a photo eye and triggers compactions automatically. When the compactor reaches predetermined fullness levels that indicate a pick up is required, the the fullness and required pickup status is visible and trackable from any web-enabled computer and external LED indicators are triggered."

O’Rourke will be offering an education program on the containers for businesses and residents in the North End, starting this summer and continuing through the fall.  

“It will include a lot of one-on-one — visiting the businesses and leafleting the residences in the areas.”

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