EP0950764B1

EP0950764B1 - Device for collecting organic waste from ground

Info

Publication number: EP0950764B1
Application number: EP99107122A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Paola Maria Baraggia
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-04-17
Filing date: 1999-04-12
Publication date: 2004-09-22
Anticipated expiration: 2019-04-12
Also published as: DE69920315D1; EP0950764A1; ITMI980278U1; IT243951Y1; DE69920315T2; ATE277232T1

Abstract

A device (1) for collecting organic waste from ground comprises containment flexible means (2) which are operatively coupled to collecting means (5), the flexible means (2), which are made of an impermeable material, being provided for winding on the collecting means (5), to provide an impermeable space for engaging therein the collecting means (5), and a further impermeable space for holding therein the organic waste. <IMAGE>

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of using a device for collecting organic waste from ground.
As is known, in a lot of urban areas persons walking through with a dog must compulsorily collect the organic waste of this animal, for disposing said waste in suitable vessels, in order to prevent the public transit zones from being soiled.
This new requirement, imposed by recent law ordinances by a lot of public administrations, has been quickly accepted by the users and several solutions have been proposed on the market for meeting the above mentioned needs.
Existing organic waste collecting devices, while solving the above exposed technical problem, are, however, affected by the following disadvantages.
At first, these prior organic waste collecting devices, which are necessarily of a disposable type, have a comparatively high cost, both because the methods conventionally used for making them and due to the materials used therefor, thereby the user thereof would be subjected to a continuous disbursement, also considering that the organic waste collecting operation can be repeated several times in a day.
Moreover, in performing the organic waste collecting operations, while the hands of the user are protected from contacting the organic waste proper, they are not protected from the dirty ground thereby the user's hands are frequently soiled by said ground.
A further disadvantage of prior organic waste collecting devices is that they can hardly be properly sealed upon use, since, for hygienic reasons, the collected organic waste must not directly contact conventional urban waste collecting vessels.
In this case too, prior acceptable approaches provide to use additional adhesive parts, which further increase the end costs of the organic waste collecting device and this, without providing any efficient sealed features.
Finally, prior organic waste collecting devices have a comparatively large size and cannot be arranged in a pocket which represents a negative aspect for the user who cannot conceal the device in a pocket.
The document DE-3909418 A1 discloses (with reference to the figures and reference number of this document) a waste collecting device including a waste collecting bag having two collecting legs defining two parts of the collecting bag, i.e. a first part of the collecting bag 88, of substantially a rectangular configuration, arranged between the bottom 78 of the bag and the gripping edge 84 and a second portion 90 of the bag, also of rectangular configuration, arranged between the gripping edge 84 and the opening 72.
For gripping and collecting the organic waste material, it is necessary to grip the two gripping elements 86 and the two collecting leg 82, so as to slightly displace from one another the two collecting legs 82. Then the user must overturn the first portion 88 of the bag within the second portion 90 of the bag, as shown in figure 6b. Then, a collecting leg 82 is pressed along its gripping edge 84 to a flat inclined position on the bottom, whereas the other collecting leg 82 must be handled to perform rotary motions to introduce the waste material inside the first part 88 of the bag. Thus, the collecting leg 82 directly contact the waste organic material and also directly contact the hand of the user; thus, during this movement, the hand of the user can accidentally contact the waste organic material or, at minimum, the ground. Such a rotary movement is generally shown in figure 6c of this prior document by the arrow. Then, after having collected the waste organic material, the two collecting legs 82 must be pressed onto one another along their gripping edges 84. Thus, the first portion 88 of the bag will be closed on itself. The overall collecting device must be then turned so as to cause the waste material inside the first part 88 of the bag to be pressed on the bottom 78 of the bag by the gravity force. Then, the two collecting legs 88 must be rotated along one of the two gripping edge 84, the rotary movement being directed away from the first portion 88 of the bag, since the two collecting legs 82 will be brought in contact to one another so as to bear onto one another through the overall surface thereof. Then, the second portion 90 of the bag must be overturned above the first portion 88 of the bag, and above the two legs 82, thereby the side, previously on the outside, of the wall of the second portion of the bag forms the inner side whilst the inner side of the wall of the second portion 88 of the bag forms the outer side. Then, finally, the bag 70 can be disposed of.
In this connection, it should be pointed out that in the disposal of condition, the collecting legs 82 are arranged inside the prior bag and not outside (as in Applicant's bag hereinafter discussed).
From the above it should be apparent that the mode of operation of the prior collecting bag is very complex and fully different from the mode of operation of Applicant's bag in which the user hands are fully protected and encompassed by the walls of the bag: on the contrary, as stated, in the prior art collecting bag, the hands of the user must contact the outside of the collecting legs 82 and then can accidentally contact also the waste organic material and, at minimum, the ground.
On the contrary, as it would clearly appear from the following discussion, in Applicant's collecting bag the hands of the user, during the collecting operation, are fully protected by the walls of the bag and cannot absolutely contact either the waste organic material or the ground.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the aim of the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks of prior organic waste collecting devices.
According to the invention, the above aim is achieved by using a device for collecting organic waste from ground, which device has a very reduced size and can be made at a very low cost.
Briefly, according to the invention, a device for collecting organic waste from ground has been provided, said collecting device comprising containment flexible means which are operatively coupled to collecting means, said flexible means, being made of an impermeable material, being adapted to be wound on said collecting means to provide an impermeable space for engaging therein said collecting means, as well as a further impermeable space for holding therein said organic waste.
The device for collecting organic waste from ground is characterized by the features of the characterizing portion of claim 1.
The subject organic waste collecting device provides the following advantages.
The cost of said device is much smaller than that of a comparable prior organic waste collecting device, and this both due to a novel construction of the device and due to the different materials used for making it.
Moreover, the subject device can be used in a very safe manner, owing to its small size and use facility and simplicity.
Finally, the use of the subject device provides with very good hygienic properties, since it allows to collect said organic waste in a very safe manner, from a personal hygiene standpoint, while preventing a user hands from contacting the ground. Moreover, the collected organic waste can be easily and quickly sealed in said collecting device, thereby preventing any pollution to the environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further characteristics, advantages and details of the use of the organic waste collecting device according to the present invention will become more apparent hereinafter from the following detailed disclosure, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some embodiments of the device have been shown by way of a merely indicative but not limitative example.
In the drawings:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device for collecting organic waste from ground according to the invention, in a before-use folded condition thereof.
Figure 2 is a further perspective view of the device shown in Figure 1 in an extended condition thereof.
Figure 3 is a further perspective view of said device in a ready for use condition.
Figure 4 is yet another perspective view of the device according to the invention.
Figure 5 is yet another perspective view of the subject device in a ready for use condition.
Figure 6 is yet further perspective view of the subject device during the use thereof.
Figure 7 is another perspective view of said device during the use thereof.
Figure 8 is a further perspective view of said device at the end of the use thereof.
Figure 9 is a further perspective view of a modified embodiment of the organic waste collecting device according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to the number references of the above disclosed figures, the device 1 for collecting organic waste from ground according to the present invention comprises a containment or holding bag 2, made of a plastic material, preferably a polyethylene material, and being advantageously provided with a pair of handles 3.
Said bag 2 is provided, along the front walls 8 thereof, with a pair of fins 5, made of a paper material of any other easily biodegradable material, which are coupled, by adhesive means, seaming or sealing means to said walls 8.
More specifically, the fins or legs 5 are arranged symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal axis of said bag 2 and have their connection arranged along an edge 6 near the middle point of said longitudinal axis.
Advantageously, the containment or holding
bag 2 is further provided with a pair of longitudinal folds 7, allowing the two side walls 4 to be displaced or recovered ot a half of the width of the front walls 8.
Thus, it is possible to easily perform the folding operation during the making of the device by automatic making machines and by manual means, thereby, at the end of the mentioned folding operation, a very reduced size device 1 will be obtained.
In this connection it should be apparent that the shape and size of the elements forming the subject device can be varied according to requirements, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
At the end of the making and packaging operations, said device 1 will occupy a very reduced space, as it is clearly shown in Figure 1.
In such an arrangement, the subject device can be easily carried, even in small size pockets.
For use, it will be sufficient to extend the containment or holding bag 2, and wind the legs 5 by the front walls 8.
Accordingly, said holding bag 2 must have a length sufficient to provide the mentioned winding, while providing a collecting region for the organic waste and allowing said region to be easily wound in order to reclose it.
With reference to Figures 6 and 7, it will be then sufficient to put the hands in the space defined between the legs 5 and front walls 8 and grip said legs 5 for collecting from ground said organic waste.
Thus, by turning upside down said device 1 the collected organic waste will fall to the bottom of the bag 2 while the handles 3, either cooperating or not with said legs 5, will allow the bag to be closed by a simple pair of knots.
Then the subject device can be disposed of by putting it in a perfectly sealed condition in conventional urban waste collecting vessels.
It should be pointed that, advantageously, during the collecting operation, the user's hands cannot contact the ground or the organic waste being collected both due to the impermeability of the used materials and the specifically designed construction of the device which, accordingly, will be very practical in use and will have very good hygienic characteristics.

Claims

A method of using a device (1) for allowing a user to collect by his/her hands organic waste from ground, using a waste holding flexible impermeable material bag (2), said bag having a substantially rectangular configuration with a cross minor axis and a longitudinal major axis, having front and rear walls (8), side walls (4) and, coupled to each said front and rear walls (8) a waste collecting flat leg (5), the two legs (5) being arranged symmetrical to said longitudinal axis of said bag (2), said front and rear walls (8) defining a pair of supporting handles (3), said legs being coupled to said front and rear walls (8) of said bag at a coupling edge (6) of said legs (5) substantially arranged at a middle point of said longitudinal axis at a bottom portion of said handles (3), characterized in that said holding bag has a length so designed as to allow said front and rear walls (8) of said bag to be wound on and fully encompass said legs (5) to provide a first impermeable space tightly encompassing therein said legs and sufficient to tightly receive therein said hands of said user for allowing said user to collect by said legs from said ground said organic waste while protecting said hands from contacting said ground and a second impermeable space tightly separated from said first impermeable space for arranging therein a collected waste, that said side walls (4) include each a longitudinal middle fold (7) to allow each side wall (4) to be displaced substantially to a half of a width of said front and rear walls to allow said bag to be easily folded to a minimum size as said bag is made by automatic machines, and that said handles (3) have such a length as to be easily knotted to tightly enclose the collected waste in said holding bag while allowing said legs to project outside from said walls (8) with said organic waste tightly enclosed in said device.
The method according to Claim 1, characterized in that said legs are coupled to said front and rear walls (8) by adhesive, seaming, or sealing means.
The method according to Claim 1, characterized in that said holding bag is made of a polyethylene material.
The method according to Claim 1, characterized in that said legs are made of a paper material.