Needham Business Puts Mark on Chicago

A local company, which got its start in Needham, will soon put its stamp on the Windy City.

BigBelly Solar recently made a deal with the city of Chicago to set up 400 of its solar-powered trash compactors, along with its adjacent recycling units and a wireless monitoring system, for $2.5 million. Under the agreement, the city, and related organizations, can buy up to 1,200 more in the future.

“Every intersection in (Chicago’s central business district) will become a BigBelly intersection,” said Richard Kennelly, the company’s vice president of marketing.

BigBelly was founded by inventor Jim Poss in Needham in 2003. The company’s headquarters then moved to a larger location on Wells Avenue in Newton last summer.

The BigBelly units, which resemble mailboxes, use the sun’s energy to compact the trash once it reaches a certain level. Once full, the units signal a central server to notify collectors.

The bins hold approximately five times as much as conventional trash cans, saving cities and towns up to 80 percent in collection costs and reducing fuel emissions from garbage trucks, according to the company. After Philadelphia installed 500 in 2009, the city saved about $900,000 in collection costs the following year, according to the company.

BigBelly Solar has steadily grown since 2003, and the trash compactors can now be found in 48 states and 30 countries, Kennelly said. Chicago joins not only Philadelphia but also Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Seattle and Boston as major U.S. metropolitans that use the bins. Smaller cites, and even towns such as Lincoln and Lexington, as well as universities and parks, also have them, he said.

Poss, a Marblehead native, founded the company while earning his M.B.A. at .