Solar Trashbins Join Green Push

A little more than a year after University President Drew G. Faust vowed to cut Harvard’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from 2006 levels over the course of eight years, the University has continued its sustainability push with the installation of five solar-compacting trash bins on Aug. 25.

The five “Big Belly” recycling and trash stations—located at the south-side entrance of the Science Center, Holworthy Gate, Holyoke Gate, the northwest entrance of Grays Hall, and Boylston plaza—replaced two non-compacting trash and recycling bins in the Yard.

The new Harvard Yard recycling bins were purchased by a joint effort between Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) Recycling & Waste Services and FMO Landscape Services.

“Landscape Services strongly encouraged us to do this,” said Recycling Services Associate Manager Rob Gogan. “They wanted to reduce the time workers chased after refuse in the yard.”

Gogan said that tourists and students often littered when trash cans appeared full, and a lot of recyclable waste would be thrown away. A non-compacting trash can has to be emptied up to three times a day during warm months. The new compacting bins are checked daily but emptied only every two to three days.

“More waste is recycled now that there are recycling bins as well,” Gogan added.

With a capacity for holding and compacting four times more litter than a non-compacting barrel, the “Big Belly” containers reduce by three-fourths the greenhouse gases emitted from vehicle trips to service the new receptacles, according to Gogan.

Other benefits include less vehicle noise and air pollution, and fewer disruptions of pedestrian traffic in the Yard.

As another facet of the University’s emissions-reducing program, Gogan said that Harvard has entered into a competition to see which campus can recycle the most waste at a home football game.

—Staff writer Carola A. Cintron-Arroyo can be reached at ccintron@fas.harvard.edu.