Big Belly On Chambers Street

If you work downtown, in the Tribeca/Civic Center/City Hall area, go to Chambers and Church and check out Big Belly, the new solar-powered garbage can from Seahorse Power. Seahorse Power donated the garbage can that can automatically compact trash, which holds eight times the amount of a regular trash can and could help save on garbage runs and reduce diesel fumes. Plus, it can keep the rats out. But this unorthdox design seems to confuse people. One woman tells the Daily News, "It looks more like a mailbox. I walked past it and had no idea it was a trash can." And the Post has a quote from one who joked, "It looks like you should put fancy trash in this. I would think my trash isn't good enough for this." Gothamist has seen the Big Belly, but we had no idea it was a pedestrian trash can - we thought it might be a holding area for other garbage to be picked up. We are so naive.

The founder of Seahorse explained that the $4,500 garbage can was donated because "There's a tremendous amount of garbage in New York." No kidding. That, plus the potential of selling many Big Bellies to the Department of Sanitation.