Called the BigBelly, the new can on the block - in this case, 15th Street and JFK Boulevard at JFK Plaza - has a solar panel that powers a trash compactor, allowing the bins to accept four to eight times as much waste before being full.
Instead of having to be emptied 19 times a week - like the current wire bins - the BigBellys are expected to hold out for more than a day and require emptying only five times a week, saving staff time, fuel costs, and greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Of those, 210 will have companion recycling bins - marking the debut of on-street recycling in Center City. This, too, could produce savings because landfilling is more expensive than recycling.
The complete lack of any public recycling has been awful. I'm not exactly convinced by claims about saving taxpayer money, but hopefully they'll at least help keep the city a bit cleaner.