Today, I noticed that they have installed solar-powered trash and recycling bins in the subway station downtown.

This seems like a fine gesture and certainly in-line with the Eco-friendly brand of public transportation. However, I have one quibble.

The subway station is about 60 feet below street level. It takes two staircases and a trek of about 100 yards to get to the platform where these receptacles are placed. 

There is no sunlight making its way to these solar panels.

Of course, I have no doubt that some industrious civil engineer will figure out how to install some heating lamps meant for iguanas over the trash cans, thus giving them the light they need to power rubbish and recyclables into some kind of useful paste.

The cost to power these lamps will likely exceed what it would cost the just plug the trash cans into an outlet somewhere, and I’m sure the labor costs to install these lights will dwarf the pay rate of a janitor who would otherwise have to empty these cans every day instead of every week now.

This is all hypothetical, of course. Well, not the solar powered bins. Those are really installed in the basement of Union Station. I’m just heaping on some rampant speculation as to how this conundrum will be solved.

It’s highly likely that it isn’t, and these are just really heavy waste baskets now and forever.

There was a nice leaf graphic printed on the side. I mean, they meant well.

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Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND