Monday, June 23, 2008

Big Belly, Victoria, BC



Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting lovely Victoria, BC (Canada). The two things that caught my eye: 1) really cute tugboats in the harbor, and 2) photovoltaic trash cans called BigBelly.

The Big Belly website touts that "BigBelly Solar is changing the concept of solid waste management with the world's first and only on-site solar compaction systems." They continue how BigBellies "reduce waste collection frequency and lower costs." Curious.

I know I haven't yet technically started on my fellowship yet, but this (taking pictures of the trash can and blogging about it) seemed like good practice.

3 comments:

Jandals said...

A Solar-powered garbage compacter. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?

Unknown said...

They have those in Chicago on Lake Michigan & they have had the added bonus of reducing a pesky bird problem, since the gulls don't pollute the beach if there is no trash to lure them. Win-Win.

Unknown said...

We also have these in Davis Square, and I think that they are about to put them in all over Somerville!

On a separate note, Meredith have you heard of a process called "plasma gasification" that apparently makes garbage almost vanish by striking it with a bolt of artificial lightning (really) -- http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/04/plasma_gasification/