Super-sized garbage-eating machine

The superhero of all garbage cans has landed in Laurelton, Queens. The BigBelly, a massively square garbage-eating machine, resides at the southeast corner of Francis Lewis Boulevard and Merrick Boulevard outside of the Chase Bank.
&#8220The BigBelly Cordless Compaction System is also an effective litter control tool, preventing costly and unsightly bin overflow by holding at least four times the amount of trash of standard trash cans,” according to the manufacturer of the device, Seahorse Power of Needham, MA.
Thanks to efforts from Assemblymember William Scarborough, who obtained $50,000 for these new garbage cans, the community will have nine more placed in commercial areas around Laurelton, Rosedale and Springfield Gardens.
The BigBelly is able to cut conventional garbage pick-ups by 75 percent. Seahorse Power points out it is a closed system thereby limiting air pollution and minimizing trash-related vermin.
District manager of Community Board 12, Yvonne Reddick, said that most constituents like these new garbage cans and are looking forward to having more placed throughout the district.
&#8220I would be happy if they were all over the district. It would be cleaner, and we wouldn't have to worry about them disappearing from the block,” Reddick said.
The vice president of marketing sales, Richard Kennelly said the BigBelly converts sunlight into electricity and then stores it into a battery so that it can run at night and in bad weather. It has an electric eye that indicates when the trash container is full.
&#8220On the front there are three lights that go from green to yellow to red. Green means that there is room for more. If it senses resistance and trash is tight, the light turns yellow. It turns red when it simply cannot compact anymore,” Kennelly said.
He said the machines cost about $4,700 each, but a discount can be given if purchased in large quantities. There are approximately 46 machines placed throughout Queens Business Improvement Districts (BID) in accordance with the Queens Clean Air Project.
Kennelly said that most BIDs have private workers who collect garbage and then leave their trash bags on the sidewalk for the sanitation department to collect.
Kennelly said that this new BigBelly is the first to be placed in a non-BID district. The next unit is scheduled to be installed in October on the corner of Springfield Boulevard and Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica.