Philly rolls out solar-powered trash cans downtown

[Daox]

This is very cool. They're garbage cans, but also solar powered trash compactors! This allows them to store 4-5x the garbage and reduces the frequency with which they have to be emptied. Apparently they'll save $875,000 a year. However, they do cost a pretty penny, $3,195 to $3,995! (500 x $3,200 = $1,600,000). That makes for a 2 to 2.3 year ROI which is pretty darn good actually.

Philadelphia has replaced 700 public trash receptacles downtown with 500 of the high-tech compactors, which use solar energy to condense trash — cutting collection trips by 75%.

...

...the cans also have a wireless monitoring system that notifies the city when they're full.

Philly rolls out solar-powered trash cans downtown - USATODAY.com

[Ryland]

Not that I like allowing people to produce more trash, isn't it japan that bans public trash bins? with a few countries like Singapore where it is jail time for littering.

[Patrick]

When I was in London near the Millennium Wheel (London Eye now?) there was trash on the ground everywhere and not one trash can to be seen. We looked for over an hour to find a place to dump our trash. Makes no sense.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Patrick

When I was in London near the Millennium Wheel (London Eye now?) there was trash on the ground everywhere and not one trash can to be seen. We looked for over an hour to find a place to dump our trash. Makes no sense.

I heard that there are no trash cans in Rome - it's cheaper to just sweep the streets than to empty the trash bins and sweep the streets.

Also, many places have no trash cans since that's a good place to hide bombs. This is popular in subway stations, but the streets of London may be the same case, given the frequent terrorist warnings.