Earlier this summer, a $4,000 solar trash compactor was installed on 4th Avenue between 86th and 87th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.   (We would like to applaud the BID’s choice of solar power and it would be even cooler if all of the businesses within the BID were powered by a clean form of energy.)  The 86th Street BID installed this BigBelly with the idea that by using the compactor, the busy corners would no longer be plagued with a large amount of trash bags.   

Having said that, the couple of seconds that we spent passing the compactor on our way to the subway has left us confused, because the corner directly behind the above compactor looked like this.

As you can see, a lot of trash is still on the corner, which is directly outside of the subway entrance.  We didn’t notice any signs about who should be throwing trash into the trash compactor, and we are quite honestly confused as to who should be using it.

Are people now supposed to place their random pieces of litter inside the compactor instead of the corner trash cans?  If so, it really doesn’t seem like a wise idea to allow the many random skell, transient, or other unintelligent people who pass through the area to have access to such a powerful piece of machinery. 

Or, is the private company that was hired by the 86th Street BID, to keep the area litter free, supposed to bring the trash from the corner trash cans to the compactor and compact it all? 

Either way, it’s clear that not many people have used the trash compactor, and people are treating the compactor as if it is an unstable bomb that is ready to blow up at any moment — no one goes near it, and not even one scratch/piece of graffiti has landed on it since being installed in July.