Garbage in, garbage out — but less frequently if the city decides to replace street litter baskets with solar-powered compactors that go for a hefty $4,000 each.
Eighteen months after rejecting one version of a high-tech street garbage compactor as impractical, the Sanitation Department is quietly evaluating whether a new model with different features can qualify as the city’s street trash can for the 21st century.
Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said the first BigBelly solar compactor didn’t make the grade because it held just twice the volume of a regular litter basket, not the five times advertised by Seahorse Power Co. of Needham, Mass., the manufacturer.
“You really have to put them on a whole route, which can maybe be 200 baskets out there, and these things cost $4,000,” Doherty said.
“If a litter basket costs about $125 and if [BigBelly] only holds two litter baskets, I can put two litter baskets on the corner for $250 instead of $4,000. So we have to look at that.”
An optional wireless signal that transmits a message when the solar basket is full would add $225.
Doherty committed to going to Philadelphia to check out the 800 devices that were installed there last April. Each can hold up to 50 pounds of compacted garbage.
In November, Sanitation began testing one of the new 32-gallon baskets at Knickerbocker and DeKalb avenues in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was obtained through City Councilman Erik Dilan.
“We’ve been here 34 years and honestly, since the new can has been here, it’s been cleaner,” said Liborio Mortillaro, 52, an employee at nearby Tony’s Pizza.
“You can put a whole umbrella in there and it eats it right up.”
Frank Cruz of Direct Environmental Corp. in The Bronx, the distributor for the New York area, said the garbage can is being successfully used in cities around the country and in some business-improvement districts here.
“They’re impervious to vermin. They’re very low-maintenance,” Cruz said. “They only need service every four years, to replace a battery that costs $200.”
Additional reporting by Amanda Melillo