Michael Malik, Herald-Times
In front of Starbucks on Indiana Avenue in Bloomington is a city trash can.
A city employee has to empty the can once a day because so much trash is thrown into it by passers-by.
In order to reduce fuel usage and greenhouse gas emissions, the city plans to use funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to buy several solar-powered trash compactors about the same size as the trash cans the city now uses.
“Hopefully that’ll cut down on the amount of fuel we need to use to go empty these,” said Susie Johnson, the city’s public works director. “If we only have to pick these up twice a week, that’s a savings.”
Just more than a year has passed since President Barack Obama signed the unprecedented federal stimulus bill into law.
Local governments and public institutions in Monroe County are using their portions of the $787 billion bill to build new pedestrian sidepaths and trails, new buildings and — in the case of the state’s higher education institutions — to help make college more affordable for students. They also are using the money for environmentally friendly projects such as the trash compactors.
Federal stimulus data made public by the federal government and compiled by ProPublica, an independent nonprofit news organization, and shared with The Herald-Times, showed the following: