I was riding to work the other week, about to pass by Gravelly Point, where a lot of people like to park and watch the planes fly overhead. On the weekends, there's a lot of people who visit this spot, and spend the day picnicking, playing on the field, and of course, leaving trash in the cans. On Mondays, the trash cans are WAY overfilled, even having big trash bags set up next to the can to hold the extra trash. Well, on this day, I noticed something new that caught my eye, so I stopped and went back to take a closer look. I wonder if any other cyclists had seen it too, or whether they had just blasted on by... Anyway, this new item was a Solar Powered Trash Compactor! Wow! Very interesting! When I got to work, I looked up online to see if there was others like it and what the deal was. Here's the website I found on it: http://www.bigbellysolar.com/products/ An article I found on the web says that these solar powered trash compactors can accept close to eight times as much waste as a regular trash can. It saves the city money because the workers don't have to come around to empty it much. In Philadelphia, it says the city saves $12 million dollars over 10 years! Very cool. :) I hope lots of other cities get these installed! :)UPDATE: The Trash Compactor only lasted a couple months - - then disappeared. Maybe it was a "trial experiment"?
