GB2294193A - Refuse containers - Google Patents

Abstract

A waste containing receptacle consists of an external relatively rigid bin 8 having a continuous edge (12, Fig. 2) defining an open end, the end being adapted to receive one or more plastics carrier bags (2, Fig. 1) and the bin being provided with means 18 for retaining the bag or bags in such a position as to keep the opening edge 4 of the bag or bags in an open configuration to enable waste to be placed in the bag or bags. <IMAGE>

Description

REFUSE CONTAINERS This invention relates to refuse containers.

Many human activities generate large amounts of miscellaneous refuse. While the present invention is not limited in its application to the domestic field, it finds its main application there and will be particularly described accordingly with reference to the generation of disposal of domestic refuse, particularly but not exclusively kitchen refuse.

It is widely appreciated that refuse handling is easier both aesthetically, mechanically and from the point of view of public health if it is bagged. Thus, over recent decades, refuse collection authorities have moved from collecting loose refuse deposited in a dustbin and then tipping the refuse direct into a dust cart to insisting that refuse is bagged. Large size black plastics sacks, known as dustbin liners, are provided by the refuse collecting authority and these are used by placing the sack into an empty dustbin in opened out condition and with its open end folded down round the upper, usually circular, rim of the dustbin. Refuse may then be deposited into the bag, and when the bag nears being full, the upper edge may be gathered together and either knotted using the material of the bag or, e.g. tied round with a piece of string.The entire bag is sufficiently strong to contain the refuse within it and be simply and hygienically removed from the dustbin and placed in the dust cart directly or after a waiting period set near the dustbin until the regular, usually weekly, collection.

This approach has found favour on a slightly smaller scale in terms of waste bins used inside houses, particularly in kitchens, which conventionally consist of a plastics bin into which rubbish may be deposited. Socalled "bin liners" are conventionally available in the form of plastics sacks which are used to line the bin before the refuse is thrown into it. Each time the waste bin fills, the bin liner and its contents is taken as a whole, removed from the bin and dumped in the larger refuse sack in the dustbin.

Bin liners are convenient and hygienic. They are sold in very substantial numbers and in a variety of grades and sizes. However, it will be appreciated that since they are made of plastics films, their manufacture is consumptive of resource and they are not accordingly in themselves seen as particularly "environmentally friendly". Some manufacturers make bin liners from recycled plastics material, but although that is an improvement, manufacturing bin liners is consumptive of energy.

We have now found that overall energy savings may be achieved for the community by re-use of plastics carrier bags.

Plastics carrier bags are produced in a fairly narrow range of sizes but in enormous quantities for shoppers to carry goods home from shops in. They consist very often of a generally rectangular plastics bag having an open top, seams along three sides and, spaced equally about the perimeter of the open top, two apertures. When those two apertures are registered and the fingers of the user passed through both apertures, the bag may be picked up.

In some cases, the overall plan of the bag when laid flat is substantially rectangular and the apertures are located a little way away from one edge. In others, the three welded sides (or one welded side and two folded sides if the bag is made from an extruded tube) are straight while the open end of the bag has a pair of bulges or tabs with apertures in them constituting handles.

It has been found that the relatively standard sizes of such carrier bags and the relatively standard sizes of many waste bins bear an approximate relationship to one another which can be exploited as explained below to enable the re-use of the carrier bags as bin liners.

According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided a waste containing receptacle consisting of an external relatively rigid bin having a continuous edge defining its open end and a pair of carrier bags held in opened out form side-by-side within the volume of the bin, the openable edge of each carrier bag generally describing a path running from the centre of the open end of the bin to the rim of the bin, across the rim of the bin and a short distance down the external face of the bin, then around half of the periphery of the bin a short distance away from its edge, back to the edge of the bin and back to the centre of the open end of the bin, and means being provided to hold the periphery of both carrier bags substantially in that path when refuse is placed in them.

According to a preferred feature of the present invention, the means for holding the carrier bags in position consists of a pair of diametrically opposed hook units, each located spaced a short distance from the open edge of the bin, on the exterior of the wall of the bin and pointing away from the open edge of the bin. The apertures provided in the carrier bag with which it may be carried may be hooked over those hook units enabling the open end of the carrier bag to be manipulated to follow the path described above. The hook unit may include a single hook over which the handles of two bags may be engaged, or a pair of hooks (or three or more hooks) side-by-side, one for each bag handle.

The path length may be varied by varying the distance of the hooks from the open edge of the bin, and if desired a plurality of hooks may be located at different spacings from the upper edge of the bin to accommodate bags of slightly varying size. The hooks may be integrally moulded as part of the bin or may be attached thereto.

The plastics material of which carrier bags are conventionally made is generally slightly stretchy, and ideally the carrier bag when assembled into one half of the top of the outer bin should be slightly stretched around the path. If, as is preferred, the top edge of the bin has a rim or bead around which the edge of the carrier bag can be stretched, the carrier bag does not tend, even when refuse is placed in it, to slip off the rim of the bin.

Many households already have plastic bins for kitchen waste and a regular supply of carrier bags. Accordingly, the present invention further provides means for converting the bin to be used with two carrier bags in accordance with the invention consisting of a pair of hooks and means for attaching the hooks in opposed positions on opposite sides of the bin. Conveniently, the hooks may be made of moulded plastics and have a flat surface provided with an adhesive pad, covered until the hook is to be attached to the bin by a protective sheet.

While the shape and size of the hooks may vary widely, it is preferred that they are formed to have a fairly substantial supporting surface for the material of the carrier bag, and rounded edges, in order to avoid any risk of tearing.

In order to facilitate appropriately positioned application of the hooks to standard size waste bins, the hook may be configured at one end of a plastics base, the other end of which is formed into an edge adapted to abut the generally outwardly turned rim of the existing plastics waste bin. The user then simply locates the edge of the hook unit remote from the hook adjacent the waste bin rim and sticks the hook into position.

Preferably, the hook is stuck to the waste bin via a resilient pad, e.g. of foam plastics or rubber which can accommodate the face of the waste bin being flat or, as is often the case, slightly convexly curved.

By using the present invention, the environmentally friendly consumer can avoid the necessity of buying bin liners and use plastics carrier bags instead, thus recycling them directly rather than, for example, returning unwanted plastics carrier bags to a collection point from which they are taken and used as plastics raw material for the making of "recycled bin liners The invention is illustrated by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a supermarket carrier bag.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a kitchen waste bin modified to make use of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the top of the waste bin of Figure 2 with two carrier bags installed in it.

Figure 4 is a vertical section through a hook and Figure 5 is a plan view of the hook of Figure 4.

Referring first to Figure 1, this shows one form of standard carrier bag 1 consisting of a tube of plastics material which has been folded flat and transversely seamed at 2. Two apertures 3 have been punched out at opposite sides of the tube to form carrying handles, spaced away from the upper edge 4 of the bag which can be opened out to generally circular shape for the insertion of goods into the bag when shopping. Numerous other designs of carrier bag are known, but most are suitable for use in the present invention, even though the details of construction and how the two handles are formed vary widely.

Figure 2 shows a standard 50 litre kitchen waste bin.

Although other sizes are available, manufacturers tend to concentrate on providing bins of nominal capacity 50 litres and (approximately half height) of 25 litres.

Both have an upper open edge of such shape and size that half the perimeter added to the diameter is approximately equal to the perimeter of the upper open edge of a carrier bag.

As shown in Figure 2, attached to each side (the other side is not visible) of the waste bin 8 is a hook generally indicated at 10. The hook abuts under the upper rim 12 of the bin 8 which in cross-section has a turned over top.

The detail of the hook and its adhesion to the outer face of the bin 8 are shown in Figures 4 and 5. As can be seen, the hook consists basically of a generally trapezoidal base portion 14 having an upper edge 15 which fits under the rim 12 of the container, as shown in section in Figure 4. Opposite the edge 15 is a projecting portion 16, the outer end of which has a tab 18 extending from it. The hook may be moulded in appropriate plastics material.

Behind base 14 is a double sided adhesive pad 20. Such adhesive pads are available commercially and, e.g., are used for sticking mirrors, posters and placards to walls.

They are conventionally supplied as a strong area of foam, each side of which is coated with a permanently tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive, each layer of adhesive being in turn covered by a adherent release paper which is stripped off before use. First the pad is adhered to the back of base 14 and then the side of the pad remote from base 14 adhered to the wall of bin 8.

In order to line bin 8 with two plastics carrier bags 1, the bag is first inserted with its seam 2 downwards into the upper open end of bin 8 and the two apertures 3 then moved apart and hooked under the respective hook 10 on each side. The top periphery of the bag 4 is then pulled to extend over rim 12 and the bag takes up the general configuration shown in Figure 3. A second bag is likewise inserted to give the structure as shown in Figure 3, i.e. two side-by-side opened bags firmly held on the upper rim of bin 8.

Refuse, kitchen waste, etc. can now be thrown into the bin. If the bin has a lid, this may simply be placed on the bin in customary fashion. If the bin has a swivel lid, care should be taken to ensure that the axis around which the lid swivels is parallel to the line joining the two hooks 10, since otherwise the swivel lid would tend to interfere with the two edges of the two bags where they pass across the centre of the upper end of bin 8, adjacent one another and in a relatively taut straight line between the two edges. This is denoted 30 on Figure 3. If the bin has a lid with a swivelling flap, the flap may not be able to travel past the two carrier bag edges which meet along line 30, but this merely means that one carrier bag is filled up first, the swivel lid then removed, turned through 1800 and replaced, whereon the other carrier bag may then be filled.When both carrier bags are full, the lid is taken out the way, and each bag successively detached from the hooks 10. The handles 3, by virtue of having been on the outside of the bin 8, as shown in Figure 3, are still unsullied and can simply be used to carry the bag, now full of refuse, to an appropriate disposal location, for example by dumping them in a dustbin.

As described above, a standard plastics waste bin 8 has been modified for use in accordance with the present invention by the addition of two hooks 10. It is, of course, possible to provide the bin 8 with preformed hooks 10, e.g. by moulding one or a series of hooks on to each side of the bin when it is manufactured, so that it can then be used in conjunction with two carrier bags in accordance with the present invention as explained above.

Mention should be made of the flexibility of the present invention if the bin is used with only one carrier bag, but with a standard bin liner as well; this allows easy waste sorting, for example by the user throwing paper and food waste into the main bin liner but placing tin cans into the carrier bag.

Claims (11)

1. A waste receptacle consisting of an external relatively rigid bin having a continuous edge defining its open end and in which there is provided a pair of carrier bags held in opened-out form side by-side within the volume of the bin, the openable edge of each carrier bag generally describing a path running from the centre of the open end of the bin to the rim of the bin, across the rim of the bin and a short distance down the external face of the bin, then around half of the periphery of the bin a short distance away from its edge, back to the edge of the bin and back to the centre of the open end of the bin, and means being provided to hold the periphery of both carrier bags substantially in that path when refuse is placed in them.

2. A waste receptacle consisting of an external relatively rigid bin having a continuous edge defining its open end, a plastics bag internally lining the bin, and a carrier bag held in opened-out form within the volume of the bin, the openable edge of the carrier bag generally describing a path running from the centre of the open end of the bin to the rim of the bin, across the rim of the bin and a short distance down the external face of the bin, then around half of the periphery of the bin a short distance away from its edge, back to the edge of the bin and back to the centre of the open end of the bin, and means being provided to hold the periphery of the carrier bag substantially in that path when refuse is placed in it.

3. A waste receptacle according to Claims 1 or 2 in which the bin is provided with a generally outwardly turned rim or bead around the continuous edge of the bin.

4. A waste receptacle according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 in which the means provided to hold the periphery of the carrier bag or bags substantially in that path is a pair of diametrically opposed hook units.

5. A waste receptacle according to Claim 4 in which the hook units are each located spaced a short distance from the open edge of the bin, on the exterior of the wall of the bin and pointing away from the open edge of the bin.

6. A waste receptacle according to Claims 4 and 5 in which each hook unit may include one or more hooks.

7. A waste receptacle according to any one of claims 4 to 6 in which each hook unit includes a plurality of hooks, each hook located at different spacings from the continuous edge of the bin.

8. A waste receptacle according to any of Claims 4 to 7 in which the bin is of plastics material and the hook units are integrally moulded with the bin.

9. A waste receptacle according to any of Claims 4 to 7 in which the hook units are attached to the bin by adhesive means.

10. A waste receptacle according to Claim 9 when dependent on Claim 3 in which each hook unit may be configured at one end of a plastics base, the other end of which is formed into an edge adapted to abut the rim or bead of the plastics waste bin.

11. A waste receptacle substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 5.