Longmont to utilize ‘smart’ receptacles
Longmont wants to be smarter about collecting trash and recyclables in parks and other public spaces, quite literally.
On Aug. 23, the Longmont City Council approved a 5-year, $87,600 total contract with Big Belly Solar LLC for 20 “smart” trash and recycling units that will be placed in hotspot locations throughout the city.
The Massachusetts-based company, which does business as Bigbelly, labels itself as “the world’s leading waste & recycling solution for public spaces” on its website. It also operates in all 50 states and over 60 countries around the world.
Each of the trash and recycling receptacles that will be placed in Longmont are approximately 4-feet tall, 270 pounds and powered entirely by solar energy.
While Bigbelly does offer composting units, the city decided against leasing them too.
“Composting is something the City supports and residents can participate in through the City of Longmont Sanitations Department,” Timber Toste, Longmont parks superintendent, said in an email Thursday. “We currently do not have composting throughout the Parks and Trails system but are looking for ways we can support this in the future.”
Bigbelly’s trash receptacles come with built-in compactors and can hold up to 33 gallons of compacted waste and 150 gallons of non-compacted waste —183 gallons total — before needing to be emptied.
Because the recycling units do not have compactors, they can hold up to 50 gallons of waste.
All of the units come with sensors that transmit their capacity levels to a web-based application that city employees can monitor.
“It will allow us to do more targeted collection,” Toste said in a separate interview. “Right now, what field technicians have to do is … drive to different locations to see if the cans (are) full and then empty (them) if needed.”
The city anticipates receiving all 20 of its new smart trash and recycling receptacles by December and will install them at Dawson Park, the Civic Center, Quail Campus Recreation Center, Collyer Park, Flanders Park and other locations.
Toste said the city will likely keep the trash and recycling units side by side as opposed to in separate areas.
“We will probably keep them together just because we really are trying to push recycling,” Toste said. “The recycling cans we have right now in the parks, we get quite a bit of cross contamination in them.”
In 2020, the Park Operations
Department experienced a 56% increase in trash collection throughout the city’s parks, trails and greenways, according to a Council memo.
“Park Operations needs to find a way to offset the increase in sanitation collection and the inability to hire staff or contractors,” the memo stated.
The city looked into similar trash and recycling technology about 10 years ago but ultimately ruled against it.
Since then, Toste said the receptacles had become more user-friendly and fixtures in several communities across the country.
Following the 5-year lease agreement, the city will decide whether or not to proceed with the cans on a more permanent basis.