Patent Application
20220369779
This invention relates to coolers, also known as ice chests, used to store food and drinks and more particularly to an accessory for placing and retaining trash, such as cans, wrappers and so forth.
Coolers are a very popular and essential commodity for carrying and storing food and drinks when conventional refrigeration is not available, such as during activities including outdoor picnics, boating, traveling and other events. In many locations where such activities occur, trash disposal containers or facilities are not readily available and thus people encounter a decisional problem when it comes time to dispose of trash, such as cans, food wrappers and so forth. Some people bring a bag with them to dispose of trash and others just throw the trash back in the cooler which risks contaminating any remaining contents in the cooler. Unfortunately, however, many people just throw or leave their trash behind, which explains why so many areas where activities occur, such as parks, water bodies and beaches, are strewn with cans, bottles and other litter.
Thus, a problem exists with the disposal of trash from coolers which the present invention is designed to remedy.
Other attempts to remedy this problem have included many references for cooler accessories, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,047 issued to Dennis on Mar. 2, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,140,507 issued to Maldonado et al. on Nov. 28, 2006 and assigned to Igloo Products Corporation, but none disclose a trash disposal accessory like the present invention.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a trash disposal accessory for a cooler.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an accessory that can be easily and quickly attached to a cooler when necessary and removed when not in use.
Even another object of the present invention is to provide such an accessory that does not require a cooler to be modified in order to use it.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such an accessory that cleans up the environment by helping to eliminate trash and litter in recreation areas.
The present invention fulfills the above and other objects by providing a cooler trash disposal accessory having a bracket for attachment to an inner side of a cooler under a top cover of a cooler, said bracket having a vertical holding handle for insertion into a side of the cooler, a planar extension extending outward from the handle and trash bag holding rim attached to said extension. A trash bag having a top opening is removably attachable around a rim. The trash bag holding rim preferably has a top perimeter flange and a lower perimeter flange around it circumference with a recess in between the flanges. The trash bag is removably attachable to the rim by a draw cord enclosed around the top of the trash bag inserted in the recess between the top and bottom perimeter flanges, said cord running through a cord lock on the cord to tighten the bag in the recess. An inner clamping handle parallel to the vertical holding handle which is adjustable in distance from the vertical holding handle and tightened in desired distance to fit a width of a side of a cooler is provided for use with coolers without strap slots. The inner clamping handle is adjustable by means of a slot in the planar extension into which the clamping handle is movable to encompass a side of a cooler between the clamping handle and the vertical holding handle. A wing nut on top of the clamping handle can be tightened onto a bolt to hold the clamping handle in a desired position.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.
In the following detailed description, reference will be made to the attached drawings in which:
For purposes of describing the preferred embodiment, the terminology used in reference to the numbered accessories in the drawings is as follows:
Referring now to the
It is to be understood that while a preferred embodiment of the invention is described, it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement of parts herein described and shown. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown and described in the specification and/or drawings.
