A local maker of solar-powered trash bins is bringing jobs back to Massachusetts.
BigBelly Solar LLC opened a new manufacturing facility in Lawrence and Methuen, enabling it to take the manufacturing of its solar-powered trash bins in-house.
Prior to the launch of the new facility, the Needham-based company had outsourced production of BigBelly trash compactors before insourcing them in 2023.
The new facility gives BigBelly more control and oversight over the production of each compactor as well as giving the company more room to innovate on their novel trash soulutions, founder and VP of Business Development Jeff Satwicz told the BBJ.
Approximately two dozen employees work at the new location, including workers in charge of logistics, production planning, indirect labor like planning, buying, and management, and assembly workers.
“We felt like a company like ours could be more effective, and release more products in a quick timeframe, if we could have both the manufacturing capability and the company headquarters located close to one another,” Satwicz said.
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According to Satwicz, production volume will stay the same at its new facilities, and in the next couple of months, production is expected to increase an additional 50%.
BigBelly has been producing innovative solutions for trash collection since its first sale of a BigBelly bin in 2004, to a ski resort in Vale, Colorado. The company's early investors included the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund and Jim Gordon, then-president of Cape Wind Associates.
The company's range of bins offers solar-powered compaction, pedals to open trash lids and sensors that can lock the bins if they are too full. Some of BigBelly's latest technology is in its compost bin. The bin provides a space for neighborhoods to compost without needing weekly pickup from the city and works with BigBelly’s cloud-based system.
The cloud integration enables users to interact via an app that tells them which bins are too full, lets them know what they can and can’t compost, and allows them to unlock the bin upon arrival to prevent contamination from non-compostable material.
A BigBelly bin is roughly the same cost as a traditional trash can, costing residents a couple of dollars a month. However, according to Satwicz, the use of a BigBelly bin reduces municipality collections by 80%, leading to a 70% decrease in carbon emissions from fewer truck trips.
“The savings that we’re talking about it’s not just a financial thing,” Satwicz said. “We’re giving people the tools to make the community a better place that they don’t get from a regular waste bin."
