More Solar Powered Trash Compactors Coming to Downtown

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 7, 2011 5:32PM

Looks like Mayor Daley is making one last round of municipal beautification before leaving office. The Daley Administration signed a $2.5 million deal with Big Belly Solar to add more solar-powered trash compactors to the Central Business District. Up to 400 of the bins, which hold five times the amount of trash as a regular trash can and contain a sensor to let the city know when it's full, could soon be gracing the areas of downtown where pedestrian traffic is heaviest.

The purchase comes after a successful test of five of the machines downtown and will be covered mainly by federal stimulus funds. The bins can reduce the number of times a week trash is collected downtown and the number of city workers necessary to do so. This comes on the heels of a deal last week between the city and car sharing service Zipcar that will allow the city to reduce its non-emergency vehicle management fleet by 100 cars.