"Big Belly" Trash Compactors

When Siena Fresh switched to to-go meals, trashcans began to overflow. This resulted in more trash cans, more pickups, and higher expenses for facilities. Student Senate was able to find two possible solutions: the Ozzy Machine, and solar-powered trash compactors called “BigBelly”.

Purchased in spring 2021, the BigBellies are able to fit up to 5x more trash through compacting, requires no external power source other than the sun, and is able to communicate with facilities about when it needs to be empty. When implemented on a larger scale at Lehigh University, 54 solar compactors resulted in a 90% reduction in trash collections. This brought facility’s average number of collections from 12 a week to 1.2. The BigBelly project not only helped to reduce costs but also led to a reduction in carbon emissions from trucks and facilities going around multiple times a day and increased efficiency in facilities allowing them to coordinate pickups when bins are actually full.

The hope is that the BigBelly project reduces operating costs at Siena while reducing carbon emissions from trash collecting trucks. This leads to increased efficiency so that facilities can focus on other important campus projects.

“At the time only four were able to be purchased due to funding but we hope to continue expanding and adding more to continue increasing its efficiency. Thus far it has been a success and we are happy to help continue moving Siena in the right direction.

Eric Weiss '21, Student Senate president