Downtown Streets Sprout Big New Crop of Recycling Bins
On Broadway, a can is tossed into one of the 158 new solar-powered recycling machines that now dot Downtown sidewalks. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
When they were first introduced in 2013, just 16 solar-powered recycling bins, called BigBellys, dotted Downtown sidewalks. Now the compacting receptacles have sprung up on street corners all over Lower Manhattan below Murray Street, ready to squash your bottles and cans.
The Downtown Alliance has added 158 recycling units next to the trash compactors already in the area, making a total of 174. It’s the largest cluster of those bins in the city, according to Alliance President Jessica Lappin.
“You might see these bins in other parts of the city, but you’re not going to see this kind of concentration anywhere,” Lappin said last month at a press briefing beside a shiny new BigBelly at Liberty and Broadway.
The BigBellys, each of which replaces a conventional garbage can, holds five to seven times the amount of trash, Lappin said. What’s more, they are equipped with a wireless technology that “talks” to Downtown Alliance sanitation staff when they need to be emptied.
According to Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, fewer garbage bags, formerly filled by Alliance sanitation workers, will now clutter the sidewalks.
“We actually reduce the need for pickups by 75 percent,” she said. “Because [the BigBellys] are compacting the garbage, they don’t need to pick up as often.”
The bins also help keep rats away, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer added.
“I’m very, very excited about what the Alliance is doing here because the rat population will go down,” she said. “People will use them, they’re easier to empty, they’re very modern-looking, and I wish that we had the funding to put these on every corner in New York City.”
Vector Media, a company that places ads on taxis and in subways, purchases the receptacles in exchange for the highly visible ad space on the sides of the machines.
For the first five years, Vector pays the annual licensing costs for the bins’’ software––$60 per year per unit––and then transfers ownership to the Alliance, which then picks up the annual licensing costs.
Asked whether it is difficult to sell ads associated with garbage, Vector Media’s Vice President Chad Silver said the receptacles don't conjure images of trash.
“They’re recycling cans,” he responded. “They look like a souped-up mailbox, if you will. They don’t look like they’re associated with garbage.”
“This might seem like a garbage can,” Lappin added, glancing at the BigBelly beside her, “but really, it is cutting-edge technology.”