Solar Powered Waste Compactors on Our Campus!

Paige Sanford & Gerald Purcell || Issue 13 || February 19, 2025

Do you recall the beloved Pixar film Wall-E? Wall-E is a compactor robot, tasked with the job of cleaning Earth. Wall-E compresses garbage in small cubes and he’s energized by a solar power unit. Wall-E isn’t unlike the Solar Powered Waste Compactors, or SPWC for short, that are throughout
our campus. Solar Powered Waste Compactors are an environmental container for garbage. The compactor can hold around five times the normal capacity of a traditional trash bin. A Solar Powered
Waste Compactor is equipped with solar panels powered by the sun to operate. SPWC are usually supplied with a battery to store the solar powered energy to continue operating regardless of the weather conditions or time of day. A signal is sent to the workers when the compactor is full to be emptied. The existence of Solar Powered Waste Compactors reduces our carbon footprint and garbage trucks don’t have to monitor waste levels on a daily basis due to the signal notification. The invention of Solar Powered Waste Compactors has the economic advantage of reducing costs by up to eighty percent. The cost is less due to decreased workers wage hours, gas fuel, and vehicle maintenance from unnecessary trips to check the status of traditional trash bins. The SPWC condenses trash into smaller cubes, minimizing the size of landfills and fits more garbage into the container. On our campus, there are Solar Powered Waste Compactors that are passed daily by faculty and students. The knowledge of understanding the benefits and use of SPWCs’ is equally as important as their location at Hudson Valley. At the Marvin Library at the Borrowing desk, Admissions Office in Gunther, or the PDF attached to this announcement are Scavenger Hunt sheets to find six of the Solar Powered Waste locations on the main campus! Participants should fill them out by Thursday, February 28, of which 5 people will be randomly selected to win free HVCC merchandise!!! Send the forms to [psanford2@hvcc.edu], [g-purcell4@hvcc.edu] or slip them under the door of Amstuz 314 to be entered into the giveaway!!