Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 1:07:05 PM - by Jeanne Roberts

Beginning on April 30, and over the next few months, Philadelphia will be installing 500 solar-powered litter compactors throughout City Center, an arts and culture epicenter within the city that also offers living space and room for business development.

We normally think of solar energy as involving solar arrays mounted on rooftops and used to produce electricity to run lights and equipment in homes, businesses and factories. But the uses for solar power are spreading as designers, researchers and engineers begin thinking outside the box to solve problems.

These problems – pollution, waste, energy and climate change – are all so integral to modern, industrialized nations in the 21st century that a solution in any one area spills over into others.

Take the solar-powered trash compactors, for example. Dubbed "Big Bellies" as much for their silhouette as for the manufacturer, these trash bins feature a solar-powered internal compactor which reduces trash so effectively the city is planning to cut down on garbage collection, from 19 runs per week to a mere 5. This reduced service also means the city saves on fuel for its sanitation trucks, which in turn produces fewer global warming emissions. The compacted waste also enables area landfills to operate for a few more years beyond their expected lifetimes.

Each solar trash compactor holds up to 200 gallons of trash, as compared to an average of 55 gallons for the wire bins. This waste reduction strategy will free up almost two-thirds of city workers for other projects, since the five weekly runs can easily be accomplished by a crew of 19.

The 500 trash compactors, which will replace 700 wire-basket litter bins, are the brainchild of Philadelphia’s Mayor, Michael Nutter, who declared on April 24 that he wanted to make his city the greenest in America by 2015. Nutter’s green city program, called “Greenworks Philadelphia”, got a kick start with the solar-powered trash bins, but other measures include solar generation (2.3 megawatts by 2011, rising to 57 megawatts by 2021), tree planting, public land expansions and the launch of carbon offsets, all of which Nutter hopes will encourage more “green” jobs.

Almost half of the Big Bellies, which are manufactured by Big Belly Solar of Massachusetts, will also be coupled with can recycling units and situated along walks from the Schuylkill to the Delaware Rivers inside City Center. The estimated $2.2 million cost for this project will be covered by a state grant.