Re:Solar-Powered Trash Cans Saved Philadelphia Almost a Mill...
by greenyoda on Monday March 25, 2013 @04:06PM
(#5439388)
The hourly cost of labor for a couple of unionized employees (the minimum would probably be a driver and a loader) is probably greater than the hourly cost of the fuel that's used, especially if they're running overtime. Factoring in employee costs like health insurance, pensions and vacation time, I'd guess at least $100 per hour for a two-man crew. You can get many gallons of diesel for that amount, especially if you purchase in bulk for a fleet of city vehicles.
Also, the number of garbage trucks that the city would need to own would go down, as would the number of employees needed to maintain them.
I think the article emphasized the fuel savings because they didn't want to explicitly call attention to the fairly obvious conclusion that this efficiency improvement, if successful, would cause lots of city employees to lose their jobs.
Third paragraph:
"...communications systems for real-time reporting on a bin’s capacity. By allowing municipalities to service the BigBellys only when they are full, they are saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel annually across all BigBelly units."
Fourth paragraph:
"...information gained from each compactor allows waste managers to optimize collection schedules and routes. Before BigBelly, trash collectors had to clear out each can three times a day. Now they do so three times a week."