Case Studies

The owners of a new Salt Lake City home are among the first in the state to apply for residential LEED Platinum certification.

 When pondering their very own green building and ‘the Three R’s” associated with the green building movement (reduce, reuse, recycle), Bill and Mary Andolsek started with the recycling aspect first and foremost. The couple decided to raze an existing home in the northeast sector of Salt Lake City, and replace it with a much greener home more to their liking. But from the onset of the project, the Andolseks focused on recycling.

It started with the 25-ft-high stone tower that was originally built (along with a wall) in early 1920s as part of the entrance to a golf course. The golf course never materialized, and the land surrounding the turret was eventually put to use as a school and later developed as a residential neighborhood. The Andolseks decided to reinforce the tower and use it as a central architectural element of their new home.

Among the other recycling efforts:

• Along with the existing greenery that had to come down for the new home, the cedar roof was shredded for mulch.
  
• Thirty tons of concrete were recycled and much of the previous flatwork will be used as pavers for patios.
  
• Some of the hardwood floors were salvaged for use in the new home.
  
• The old metal kitchen cabinets were repainted for use in the garage.
  
• The exterior aluminum trim was recycled.
• River cobble in walls and fireplace was reused in the landscape walls.
  

Whether you are a city official, university president, park ranger or private company manager, BigBelly will work perfectly in your environment. As the world's first and only solar-powered cordless trash compaction system, BigBelly has created a proven, cost effective and environmentally conscious way to manage trash collection.

The City of Philadelphia
On April 30, 2009, Mayor Michael Nutter unveiled the first of 500 "BigBelly" solar-powered trash compactors and 210 companion single-stream recycling units to be installed throughout Center City Philadelphia, replacing all 700 of the old litter baskets downtown.

The solar compactors are also equipped with the CLEAN wireless monitoring system so they are "smart" trash receptacles: each unit sends a wireless signal to alert staff when it is full, so managers can optimize collection routes in real time based on data from every machine in the field. The City had been making 17 trips each week to empty 700 wire baskets throughout Center City, at an annual cost of about $2.3 million. After replacing those 700 receptacles with 500 solar-powered compactors and 210 recycling units, the City collects only 5 times a week, at an annual operating cost of about $720,000 - representing a 70% savings. The City will save nearly $1 million in the first year alone, and nearly $13 million over the next ten years. The deployment plan was a comprehensive package including a 3-year financing program, a 4-year extended warranty and service plan, and a wireless monitoring system on all 500 units.