Bins expected to save labor by notifying facilities office when full
There are fewer trash cans outside Russell House, but USC says less is more.
The university removed the old bins over spring break and replaced them with eight snazzy, solar-powered trash compactors, which cost nearly $50,000, according to Larry Cook, USC’s recycling coordinator.
Each of the new Big Belly cans can hold five times more trash than the old ones could, Cook said, and the university added a single-stream recycling bin next to each one. Everything USC recycles, like paper, bottles and cans, can be placed in the bins.
That could help USC increase its recycling and cut down on how much trash it has to take out, Cook said.
Currently USC produces about 150,000 pounds of trash in a week and recycles about 19 percent of it. It hopes to improve that rate to 40 percent in the next few years, Cook said.
But the biggest impact could be on the landscaping crew responsible for picking up the trash, he said.
The new bins notify the facilities office when they’re getting full, so workers know when to go. And even if they need to take out the trash once or twice a day, Cook said, it’d be an improvement from emptying the 40 old, often-overflowing bins three to five times daily.
“One of the big justifications for this is the labor savings,” Cook said. “That one-time investment of $6,000 (per compactor) should pay off if we meet our goals for outdoor recycling and not emptying them as frequently.”
Cook said the project should improve the visibility of USC’s recycling efforts, and it could be expanded if it goes well to other parts of campus — near other dining halls and high-traffic areas. In that sense, the Russell House bins are a pilot program, Cook said.
“But it’s also a solution, because it really does solve a problem that we’ve had for years around the Russell House,” Cook said.