Sunny days, compacting the trash away...

First of all, please note the above title should be sung to the tune of "Sesame Street". If you did not sing it to the tune of "Sesame Street" please go back and do so.

Got it? Good.

Now, speaking of that magical, perhaps a bit peculiar street - as Dave Chapelle sees it - you certainly didn't see any trash 'round there did you? Maybe a few tads of this or that to make ol' Oscar feel kinda grouchy...but not much litter flying around Sesame's sidewalks.

Heck, maybe they had the BigBelly Cordless Compaction System ™?

This ingeniously simple idea from the folks at Seahorse Power offers a slightly industrial looking but certainly no worse than average trash receptacle that also operates as a solar powered compactor. Brilliant!

"The solar-powered, cordless design of the BigBelly Cordless Compaction System ™ allows the units to be deployed virtually anywhere, eliminating the costly trenching/wiring required for conventional plug-in compaction technology. This self-powered capability provides clients with great flexibility to locate units where trash collection is a challenge, thus dramatically improving service levels, reducing or eliminating unsightly overflowing trash bins, and reducing collection trips. "

Harvard University has tested them out around campus and several progressive cities have planted them around town - including Santa Cruz and Palm Springs, CA, San Antonio, TX, and Baltimore, MD, the heroin capital of the country.

If the Big Belly is good enough for the nerds at Harvard (then again they invited Ali G to address their 2004 graduating class - see here) and the junkies in Baltimore, than gosh darn-it its good enough for NYC!

Mayor Bloomberg, if you're reading this...and I'm sure after only 36 hours of posting, our humble Blog has made it to your inbox...how 'bout tossing some of that money from the Mayor's Fund and putting it towards about 500 or so Big Belly's?

Just make sure poor Oscar doesn't find his way into one of those cans...