Patent Application
20220106109
It is estimated that by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastics than fish, by weight. This is according to a 2016 report released by the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Plastics take years to decay are injuring and killing marine life in a variety of ways. Many animals die either by choking, suffocation, or starvation as their stomachs fill with plastic they can't digest.
Likewise, toxins in marine life make their way into the human food chain. The same is true for garbage left behind in forests, or other areas, where wildlife search and scavenge for food. Moreover, landfills full of waste are releasing gases and pollutants into our atmosphere. Put simply, the environmental toll of pollution and waste is devastating.
Dog Plogging is a term that encourages dog owners to pick up litter while walking their dogs. “Plogging” is a concept originating from Sweden. Originally, a man encouraged joggers to pick up trash on their runs; and, the word plogging seemed to fit the activity. Plogging caught fire in Sweden and is being adopted by different groups around the world. Similarly, dog plogging has been growing among the regulars of dog parks and other cleanup groups. Some local businesses have been incentivizing dog plogging with gift cards, swag, and other rewards for participants. Likewise, there are sponsorships to help spread the word that a cleaner city benefits everyone.
It is important for everyone to get involved and “leave no trace”. People around the world are uniting in a mission to clean up our planet. From America to India, posts using the hashtag #trashtag can be found on social platforms. Before and after pics are being posted, showing what a difference picking up litter can make when people work together as a community, group, or COLONY TM to clean up trash and waste.
The inventors of this patent application built the portable trash, waste, and recycling containers disclosed herein on the idea that most people would clean-up litter and garbage if it was easy and practical to do so. The inventors envisioned a better world in which people do the same as bees and everyone contributes to a cleaner waste-free and trash-free world each time everyone in this community of concerned people go outside.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.
The inventors of this patent application developed the concepts behind these products while day-hiking with their family. They had been carrying empty plastic grocery bags to collect rubbish, but the utility of empty plastic grocery bags is limited, and are generally not biodegradable (so therefore exacerbates the problem). The inventors investigated various features, designs, and prototypes that would include a waterproof coating, include simple emptying processes, closures, portability, and versatility. Thus, the embodiments disclosed herein comprise components thereof as well as various combinations of the sub-combinations of elements, features, and aspects disclosed herein.
The innovative trash, waste, and recycling containers disclosed herein can be designed to accommodate the most common outdoor activities, for example the “day hike”. The inventors of this patent application hope that providing a durable, eco-friendly, and re-usable product that is easy to store in your car, for example, would be easier for people to provide cleanup activity while hiking, running, hunting, camping, enjoying snow sports, or otherwise enjoying the outdoors.
This portable container can put a large emphasis on being environmentally conscious. The portable container can be extremely durable with elements like 210D nylon for the main body, very strong nylon webbing for all the loops, and extra attention to seams and joint re-enforcement. According to certain design examples, the portable container can be 9.5 inches by 14 inches (24.1×35.6 cm) and hold 4.7 liters when closed and 6.6 liters while the top opening is open.
The portable container can stay substantially clean due to its water-resistant coating and can be repeatedly cleaned with a small wet towel or soapy water for spot cleaning. If deeper cleaning is needed the inside and outside of the portable container can be gently scrubbed with warm soapy water, for example.
The portable container can include various improvements and innovations over previous designs and inherently limited solutions. For example, the portable containers disclosed herein can include compact folding—the container can roll-up to carry the most trash with the least amount of space. The portable containers can be trail ready—leaving the trails better than previously experienced with disposable trash bags for messy jobs. The portable containers can be lightweight—the lightweight container makes it easy to carry for all outdoor adventures from sun to snow. Various designs disclosed hereinafter exhibit cleanliness and convenience all in one hands-free solution.
The portable container can include a pull tab to open a top opening thereof. The portable container can include an innovative elastic or inelastic cord tensioner and spring steel system used to keep the opening in an increased open area state for easy hands-free access to the interior of the portable container. To release the increased top opening state, a lockable fitting disposed around a reduced length of the tensioner can be released. Magnets incorporated proximate to the top opening of the portable container can retain the top opening in a closed state so as to retain bags of waste and trash therein.
The portable container can include a bottom opening zipper for hands-free gravity enabled disposal of trash and waste held within the portable container. Thus, collected rubbish can be easily disposed of by simply unzipping the bottom of portable container to drop garbage into a bin, bag, or garbage can.
The portable container can include adjustable sizing for various activities. A roll up strap can be included to conveniently size the portable container to a particular activity or amount of trash and waste temporarily stored therein. As the portable container is filled, roll-down adjustments can be made to hold as much trash and waste as needed. The portable container can be sized to fit common disposable and decomposable liner bags. As such, liquids and messy solids can be held therein without causing a full cleaning of the portable container.
In addition, a unique system for holding a top opening of a liner bag open is disclosed. As the liner bag is filled, a user can simply pull an edge out of a magnetic clasp, tie a knot in an end of the liner bag, and drop the filled liner bag down into an interior of the portable container.
One skilled in the art will appreciate in view of this disclosure that, for this and other apparatus, systems, processes and methods disclosed herein, the elements, components, and steps may be implemented in differing order. Moreover, the structures of apparatus may be reorganized or variated to accomplish a given feature or function. Furthermore, the outlined steps and operations are only provided as examples, and some of the steps and operations may be optional, combined into fewer steps and operations, or expanded into additional steps and operations without detracting from the essence of the disclosed embodiments.
The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particular embodiments described in this application, which are intended as illustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations can be made without departing from its spirit and scope, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those enumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting.
Referring to
The portable container 100 further includes a bottom opening 120 and a bottom closure mechanism 125 disposed proximate to the bottom opening 120 and enabling selective gravity enabled disposal of the garbage and waste through the bottom opening 120 of the portable container 100 as illustrated in
The top closure mechanism 125 can include a magnetic closure mechanism. For example, referring to
Referring to
The portable container 100 can further include a top opening expansion retention mechanism 140 as illustrated in
The portable container can further include a roll-top closure mechanism 150 as illustrated in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The straps 200 can be connectable to the portable container 100 so as to carry the portable container 100 in a backpack configuration, a waistline carrying configuration, a cross-body, over-the-shoulder, and/or handle carrying configuration as illustrated in
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
It is understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily recognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range being broken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, quadrants, thirds, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein can be readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third, etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all language such as “up to,” “at least,” and the like include the number recited and refer to ranges which can be subsequently broken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, as will be understood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individual member.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/078,133 filed Sep. 14, 2020, the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63078133 | Sep 2020 | US |
