A Big Belly of Solar Energy
Trash cans in front of Jeff’s Burgers in downtown La Jolla Shores, are prone to overflowing in the summer because the popular eatery draws droves of customers.
Something changed this summer when a gray trash receptacle with a built-in solar-powered compactor was installed in front of the restaurant. Some residents noticed that the street seems to be cleaner.
This high-tech invention, about the size of a mailbox, holds up to five times the volume of regular trash receptacles. The compactor’s arm, aided by sensors, regularly presses down on the garbage with up to 1,250 pounds of force.
The gizmo was installed by Arnie Mazza, a San Diego area distributor for BigBelly, maker of the trash compaction system. For now, he’s providing the BigBelly compactor plus a sister recycling unit attached to it, for free. His hope is that the La Jolla Shores Merchants Association will like it so much by the end of the trial period, it will buy one or more for the area.
Besides the one in La Jolla, Mazza also has installed a few at the Seaside Market in Cardiff on a trial basis.
Jenny McGowan, who lives four blocks away from Jeff’s Burgers, said she has noticed a difference.
“In the summertime, it smells really bad here. There’s trash overflowing. This is great, perfect,” she said one Saturday morning as she and her husband walked by with their baby in a stroller.
Made by a Massachusetts company, BigBelly compactors have made their way into some high-profile places, such as Chicago’s Millennium Park and Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Cities have also begun acquiring them for high-traffic areas. Encinitas bought a few in 2007. Palm Springs in April received a grant to buy 20 of them. The grant came from a fund to improve air quality, which BigBelly compactors help achieve by reducing the number of trash pickup trips by trucks. BigBelly claims that its compactors can eliminate four out of five pickups and therefore cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent.
The latest model of BigBelly is equipped with wireless technology that transmits signals to trash collectors when the cans are full and ready for pickup. An electronic panel on the front of the compactor has three lights. When the red light is on, it’s time to empty the container.
The top of the compactor is a solar panel, which collects the sun’s power and stores it in a 12-volt battery. According to BigBelly’s Web site, the compactor can operate for a day on the equivalent of the energy it takes to make a piece of toast.
Like using a mailbox, using a BigBelly requires pulling on a latch. The latch is intended to prevent dumping, but it also ensures that seagulls won’t get to the trash, as they often do with traditional containers that have openings on the side.
The steel compactors do not come cheap. They cost nearly $4,000 a piece. If the recycling unit is included, the cost goes up to $5,000.
Buyers recoup the cost several ways: by reducing the number of trash collections and save on manpower and fuel for trash pickups; by selling advertising on the containers; or by redeeming recyclables, if there is a recycling container attached to the compactor.
The upfront investment makes it a challenge for distributors like Mazza to convince city or state park systems to purchase them. He has dreams of getting them into schools, tourist attractions, such as Legoland, businesses, and government buildings on mass scale.
He is trying to come up with a lease program to make the BigBellys more affordable to customers.
“Then they are not out of a big chunk of money. They are out a small amount of money,” he said.
Mazza first saw the BigBellys while vacationing in Canada in 2006. Even before that, he said he had the idea of creating something like BigBelly. When he saw that someone else has beat him to the punch, he signed up to become a distributor.
He’s by trade a general contractor. His building skills come in handy when it comes to installing the BigBelly containers, because they do have to be anchored to the ground.