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Lakewood, Colo., Installs New Smart Bins, Targets 60% Diversion Rate By 2025
New solar-powered waste and recycling bins are being installed in three city parks.
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The Lakewood, Colo., City Council is moving forward with its three-year plan to make recycling more accessible with new solar-powered smart waste and recycling bins in three of the city’s parks. The council hopes this installation will help in its goal to achieve a 60 percent community-wide diversion rate by 2025.
The new receptacles use solar-powered compactors to allow each container to hold up to 300 gallons, and electronic alerts are sent to park staff when a container is full.
Douglas County, Colo., has been using smart bins since 2012, and the receptacles have helped to decrease collection frequency at several parks in the county.
The Denver Post has more information:
“I remember so vividly the day” the idea was formed, resident Trish Merkel said of the project’s conception in 2015. She was chair of the city’s Advisory Commission with Inclusive Community’s Sustainability Committee when the idea was developed and is still a member.
“There were about six of us brainstorming at a city park, and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if one day we actually come back to this park, and there are recycle bins and know that we had something to do with that?’”
At the time, only six recycling bins were available in four of the city’s 99 parks.
Merkel said inspiration struck not after seeing trash lying around the park, but rather after noticing a lack thereof.
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