Politics & Government

Downtown to Get High-Tech Trash Compactors

Waste Management will begin installing 46 compactors on July 18, and 23 of them will be coupled with recycle containers.

Forty-six new, solar-powered trash compactors will be installed beginning July 18 in downtown Kirkland, replacing 56 existing regular garbage cans,  the city announced Thursday.

Twenty-three of the Big Belly brand compactors will be coupled with standard recycle receptacles, compared to three recycle containers downtown now.

“With these new containers we’ll have seven cubic yards of recycle capacity downtown, a big improvement,” said John MacGillivray, city solid waste coordinator.

The new compactors will increase the garbage capacity of the existing 32-gallon containers by five times. And they will also send a signal to the waste collection company the city contracts with when they are almost full, and another when they are full.

“There is a wireless capacity that sends a signal to a web site,” said MacGillivray. “In the morning a driver can get on the Internet and look at the route and see where he needs to pick up.”

The new compactors and containers are part of the city’s recently renegotiated contract with Waste Management Inc., which took effect July 1, and are being installed at no increased cost to the city.

The compactors and signalling capability will improve operating efficiency by 80 percent, according to the company, by reducing fuel usage and costs.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Kirkland