Cranberry gets new cardboard compactor

Thanks to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the two cardboard recycling containers behind the Cranberry Township Municipal Center were replaced with a new commercial-strength solar-powered cardboard compactor. From the Township's website:

“We get 1,200 pounds a week in the cardboard containers behind the Municipal Center,” according to Cranberry Environmental Programs Coordinator Lorin Meeder. “They fill up instantly. If we empty them out on Friday, they’re full by Sunday – even overflowing at certain times of the year. We didn’t want to keep putting out more containers. What we needed instead was some way to compact them to reduce the volume, reduce the number of trips, reduce the amount of fuel used – to reduce the whole carbon footprint.”

The free, self-service cardboard recycling compactor is available to residents 24/7. Even when the solar collector isn’t getting enough light to charge its batteries, the compactor will still run with help from standard power lines.

There are also rules, which are posted on the front of the unit. “You have to break the boxes down to get them inside the slot,” Meeder said. “We don’t want Styrofoam or packing material. That should go in the garbage. And we don’t want people leaving trash around.”

A surveillance camera will monitor the compactor’s use.