Borough installs four solar-powered garbage cans

Princetonians now have a chance to experience the emotional high that purportedly comes with using BigBelly’s high-tech trash cans. Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi announced at a meeting last month that the Borough purchased four of the units at a cost of $3,995 each.

“We call it BigBelly because of its huge appetite for trash,” the video on the website explains. The cans, which use solar power to charge a crushing device that periodically compacts the trash, are advertized as being capable of holding five times as much trash as a regular can. Also, to prevent animals from getting into the trash, the openings of the cans are guarded by flaps.

“Once I realized what it was, I thought it was really cool,” she added.

Sverdlove had her first encounter with a BigBelly trash can outside of Hoagie Haven. Two more cans have been installed on Nassau Street — one near Starbucks and the other in front of Iano’s Rosticceria. The fourth BigBelly is located on Hinds Plaza by the Public Library.

Lisa Hadaya, BigBelly’s distribution director, said that the “main advantage” of the BigBelly receptacles is that they cut down on the number of garbage collection trips required.

“If you had trash people picking up trash once a day, now it’s once every two or three days. That saves on money and fuel, and it’s less trucks out there emitting bad particles into the air,” Hadaya said.

Ario Thomas, the Borough’s buildings and grounds foreman, said, however, that since the Borough still has lower-tech, lower-capacity cans on Nassau Street, it has to continue picking up trash every day.

Still, Thomas said that the cans stop animals from getting into the garbage and throwing some on the street. “Animals won’t be able to pull the handle down, so they can’t get in there,” he explained.

Thomas added that not having to empty the trash every day is saving time for the garbage collectors, and also that the cans may prevent extra collection trips over the summer when trash cans typically overflow.

Costa Maltabes, one of the owners of Hoagie Haven, said that the cans have made the area outside his restaurant noticeably cleaner.

“Instead of having three trash cans, we have just one now, and it is making it a little neater,” Maltabes said.

Despite the improvements to the areas outside of his shop, Maltabes said he doubted whether the receptacles were worth their price. “It has cost the taxpayers a lot of money. What the trash cans were doing before [was] basically accomplishing the same thing,” he said.

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Princeton native Pinto Adhola ’10 also voiced concerns about the cost-effectiveness of the cans. “I think it’s a waste of money, and I think the Borough throws around its money crazily,” he said.