Solar Compacting Units Installed Throughout the Village

BigBelly, the company that manufactures “smart” garbage receptacles that work off of solar power, installed the solar compacting units in the business district this week.

The top of the pail is a solar panel. The pail itself has a compactor built into it. When the garbage reaches a certain height there’s a laser inside. When garbage breaks the plane of the laser it automatically engages the compactors to crush the garbage to handle more capacity in the pail. While a standard pail may hold 50 gallons, with the compactor a pail can hold up to 150 gallons. In addition, the pails are built with cell phones inside them to send a text or email to Village personnel notifying them when the pails are full and need to be emptied.

These pails are being strategically placed throughout the Village, including the St. Paul’s playground, along the north and south sides of Seventh Street near food establishments like Dunkin’ Donuts, Seventh Street Gourmet, Walk Street, Go Greek and The French Bakery, behind CVS, another behind Grimaldi’s and another one on the west side of New Hyde Park Road. One will be placed in the area of Panera Bread as well.

The Village also purchased 20 new, larger capacity trash receptacles for the business district. Eleven will be located inside Parking Field 7S while an additional three or four will be located on Seventh Street to supplement the solar pails.