The most high-tech trashcan you’ll never use

The city is attempting to tackle one major source of litter in New York: public trash bins that overflow and blow across city streets. The solution? A Big Belly?!

Last year, the Department of Sanitation tested a high-tech trashcan called the Big Belly. The Big Belly is a solar-powered, compacting trashcan that can hold from 4 to 10 times the amount of a normal public bin. The company that produces the compactor, Seahorse Power, says that, in addition to less overflow and less frequent emptying, Big Bellies mean less odor and fewer rats.

But at around $4000 each, rather than the $100 price tag on a typical city can, the Big Belly has not yet caught on. Another complaint was that people didn’t recognize the then olive-colored contraptions that looked more like mailboxes than trashcans.

This one never really got off the ground in New York, although there are a couple Big Bellies in use in Chicago and a few other big cities in the U.S.