Solar-Powered BigBelly Puts the Squeeze on Trash in Santa Cruz

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

We’ve all heard about those really expensive … oh say, wrenches, toilet seats, etc. that the military got sold yeeeaaars ago. While this sorta sounds something like that, it’s not really. Despite the $4500 price tag per trash bin, that is. And it’s happening local to me (well, semi-local) in Santa Cruz.

But officials in Santa Cruz insist they’re not throwing the taxpayers’ money away. The BigBelly trash can is able to put the squeeze on garbage. It compacts trash to one-tenth of its size, allowing the receptacle hold more pizza boxes and coffee cups. Officials said the mailbox-sized BigBelly earns its keep on weekends when city crews are off duty. Source: HomeTownChannel.com

We Say: The only problem I can see with this is it might put a damper on people retrieving aluminum cans from those bins for recycling …