Our friends at Green, Inc have a story on smart public trash cans that have solar-powered compactors built in and are capable of texting dispatchers when they are full--reducing the total landfill space needed for disposal and the number of trips needed by diesel guzzling trash trucks to empty them.  A proposal by the Massachusetts Governor to use stimulus money to put these smart cans in State Parks is meeting resistance--on the grounds that it doesn't create jobs. 

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed using $21.8 million of stimulus package funds to put thousands of BigBelly units in all of the state’s parks. “It’s projects like these that make people suspicious of the entire federal stimulus project,” State Representative Vinny M. DeMacedo, a Republican, told The Boston Herald late last month. “They might be nice, but how are they creating jobs?”

One answer might be that as the demand for smart trash cans increases, jobs are creating in manufacturing.  But, that is counterbalanced by the loss of jobs in traditional trash can manufacturing, trash collection and disposal.  Which way the scale tips is an open question, but to mix mixed metaphors, that's one soggy dinner DeMacedo is serving.


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