Giant municipal litter-eating dinosaur
Jul. 14th, 2011 12:34 pmAnd I thought solar-powered torches were an ironic idea. For the first time, I just saw a solar-powered rubbish bin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigBelly)
Now, I can hear you thinking "Solar-powered what?" Solar-powered sitting there? Solar-powered having-a-hole-in-the-top? Admittedly, that's quite suited to the British climate :)
But no, it's actually an arguably clever idea. It compacts the rubbish inside, so can hold about eight times as much, but only needs to do so when it gets full, so the sunlight is hopefully enough. It seems quite cool and modern, and should reduce the number of overflowing litter-bins, and save money on collections. They can also send an email of a text message to the council to say when they're nearly full, although possibly a light on top might have been more practical, I don't know.
What I don't know is how they compare to one bin, eight times as big. Is the solar bin cheaper than eight bins as well as smaller? I don't know.
Admittedly eight bins would take up a lot more room. You'd probably have to make some big street sculptures that are hollow in order to make them not eyesores, but if you had a sculpture of a dinosaur where pulling a chain made it swallow the rubbish, you could make throwing things away fun again! :)
Now, I can hear you thinking "Solar-powered what?" Solar-powered sitting there? Solar-powered having-a-hole-in-the-top? Admittedly, that's quite suited to the British climate :)
But no, it's actually an arguably clever idea. It compacts the rubbish inside, so can hold about eight times as much, but only needs to do so when it gets full, so the sunlight is hopefully enough. It seems quite cool and modern, and should reduce the number of overflowing litter-bins, and save money on collections. They can also send an email of a text message to the council to say when they're nearly full, although possibly a light on top might have been more practical, I don't know.
What I don't know is how they compare to one bin, eight times as big. Is the solar bin cheaper than eight bins as well as smaller? I don't know.
Admittedly eight bins would take up a lot more room. You'd probably have to make some big street sculptures that are hollow in order to make them not eyesores, but if you had a sculpture of a dinosaur where pulling a chain made it swallow the rubbish, you could make throwing things away fun again! :)