Smart phones, smart cars … and now, smart trash?

The City of Sequim recently installed two Bigbelly automated trash and recycling stations — compacting trash and recycling devices that deploy smart, solar powered, sensor-equipped mechanisms.

The stations, installed outside the public restrooms off North Sequim Avenue and the Civic Center Plaza at 152 W. Cedar St., hold five to 10 times the capacity that traditional bins and communicate “real-time status” to notify crews when trash is ready to be collected, city officials said last week.

The mechanisms’ enclosed design “eliminates waste overflows, visible waste, windblown litter and critter access and provides a cleaner, greener, safer pedestrian space,” they said.

The trash/recycling stations were the second-choice selection in the first People’s Project! Your Money, Your Power, Your Project, a city budgeting program held in May 2019 that invited members of the community to vote on projects — up to $150,000 — they’d like to see in the City of Sequim’s 2020 budget.

The first-place selection, nine water bottle refilling stations, are being installed in city parks. The budget, city leaders said last week, allowed Sequim to install the water stations and to pilot the Bigbelly stations.

For more information, call the City of Sequim Public Works Department at 360-683-4908.