The present invention relates to a receptacle. In particular, the invention relates to a receptacle for the disposal of rubbish or sanitary waste.
Many types of waste disposal receptacles are available, particularly receptacles that are designed for the disposal of women's sanitary products. Such bins are not generally emptied on site, but are taken away and replaced with a fresh bin, due to the hazardous nature of the waste.
Sanitary bins are usually accessed via a flap which allows waste material to be placed into the receptacle. This requires that the user handles the bin around the area of access to the bin to expose the flap. This can also accumulate waste material in an area around the access to the receptacle which can be unsightly, and potentially a health hazard.
Other types of receptacles are also available for disposal of food scraps and other such waste. Similar issues arise with these products as with sanitary bins, as food and other waste material can build up around the access area causing health issues for example.
It is an object of the invention to provide a receptacle which overcomes or at least reduces some of the disadvantages of presently available receptacles or which at least provides the public with the useful alternative.
Other objects of the invention may become apparent from the following description, which is given by way of example only.
According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a receptacle which includes a body and a lid;
Preferably the body and lid are cylindrical and the lid is set least partially rotatable within the body.
Preferably the interaction between the lid and the body forms a substantially airtight seal.
Preferably the receptacle includes an opening means to assist a user in moving the lid from the closed to the open position.
Preferably the body and lid have more than one side, the lid sides being reciprocally movable in relation to the body sides.
Preferably the opening means is a handle attached to the lid.
Preferably the body includes a retention mechanism which prevents the lid from being readily removed from within the body.
Preferably the lid includes a lip which prevents the top of the lid from moving past the open top of the body.
Preferably the body further includes an external support flange.
Preferably the base of the body includes a domed or flat external surface.
Preferably the flat external surface is adapted to support the receptacle in a free standing manner.
Preferably the lid includes fastening means attached to the inside of the lid wall, the fastening means being adapted to allow attachment of freshness products inside the receptacle.
Preferably the lid includes a lip situated above the aperture, the lip being adapted, when the receptacle is in the closed position, to abut the top of the body wall and to allow the aperture to be covered by the body wall.
Preferably the lip is circumferential about the lid side.
Preferably the lip is not circumferential but extends sufficiently about the lid side to extend at least the length of the aperture.
According to another aspect, the invention provides a receptacle as described in the first aspect of the invention together with a support means, wherein the receptacle further includes an external support flange, and the support means is adapted to interact with the external support flange to removably attach the receptacle to the support means.
Preferably the support means is also attachable to a mounting surface.
Preferably the mounting surface is a wall.
Preferably the support means is a pedestal.
This invention may be better understood with reference to the following Figures which illustrate preferred embodiments, in which:
The invention, in broad terms, provides a receptacle for containing waste material. The receptacle may be especially suitable for use in rest rooms for the disposal of sanitary waste. The receptacle may also be used for the disposal of other types of rubbish including food scraps or other perishable wastes. The receptacle is adapted to be able to receive waste material with a reduced amount of contact between the user and the access to the receptacle, and is also adapted to be removed as a complete unit for later disposal of the waste material contained therein.
A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in
The body 20 is defined by a base 21 and at least one side 22. The body as shown in these Figures is cylindrical in shape thus including one continuous side. The base 21 is convex in shape when viewed from the outside of the receptacle 1. The body 20 has an open top 23 (best seen in
The lid 30 is defined by at least one side 31 (again cylindrical as shown in the Figures) and a top 32. The lid has an open base 33 (best seen in
When the lid 30 is in the open position (as seen in
As the lid 30 is movable within body 20, any waste material that may adhere or otherwise become attached around, or to, the aperture 35 is held within the body 20. This is important from a visual and hygiene aspect. Visually, it is unattractive to see waste material on the outside of the receptacle. Hygienically, the presence of such waste material is a problem as users could come into contact with that waste material, with consequent health risks. If the lid 30 plus aperture 35 was held outside body 20, then the unattractive visual and unhygienic aspects can readily occur.
The lid 30 includes a handle 34 at its apex. This handle 34 assists the user to move the lid 30 to an open position from a closed position. As will be readily apparent, the handle 34 may be substituted by a variety of types of opening means which extend from the lid, such as loops, toggles or other such means. Preferably the handle 34 (or other forms of opening means) will be positioned away from the aperture 35 to minimise contact with the aperture by the operator when exposing the aperture 35. This allows for hygienic disposable of waste material without the operator coming into contact with any residual waste material which may have been left on the edges of or about the aperture by previous users. It also provides less surfaces which may be subject to soiling by waste material when waste is deposited.
The handle 34 may be adapted to include a removable cover (not shown) for protection to impact or wear and tear during transport. The cover would preferably be snap-on to eliminate the need for fasteners or adhesives that would need replacing. The handle 34 may also be a variety of other shapes as will be appreciated by the skilled person.
Alternatively the handle 34 could be replaced by a hands-free design, such as a foot pedal, or sensor operated touch-free system that would allow the user to move the lid to the open position without needing to contact the lid in any way. These options may be incorporated into the invention in a manner that would be well understood by persons skilled in the art.
As would be apparent to the skilled person there may be a benefit in maintaining a substantially airtight seal (not shown) between the lid side 31 and the body side 22. This substantial airtight seal, formed by interaction between the lid side 31 and the body side 22, would allow movement, but minimise the air flow, between the lid side 31 and body side 22. The substantially airtight seal may be formed by any suitable seal type such as frictional, or of a brushing or gasket type, as would be appreciated by persons skilled in the art.
Both the body 20 and lid 30 may be multi-sided (e.g. square, pentagonal, etc.) as would be appreciated by a skilled person. However, as seen in the Figures, it is preferable that the base 20 and lid 30 together form a substantially cylindrical shape having one continuous side in each, and the base 21 is substantially convex when viewed from the outside of the receptacle 1. When there is more than one side, i.e. the shape of the receptacle is triangular, square etc., the lid and body will have the same number of sides and the lid will move telescopically within the body, the walls of the lid being able to move in a reciprocal manner past the walls of the body.
The cylindrical shape of the lid 30 and body 20 and the convex shape of the base 21 is a preferred configuration because there are no corners or recesses and it allows easy alignment when placing the receptacle within the support means. The telescopic nature of the relationship between the lid 30 and the body 20 also minimises the existence of corners or recesses that occur with hinged lid systems and like options. This allows easier cleaning of the inside of the receptacle, and quicker more thorough and therefore more hygienic drying. With sanitary bins particularly such hygiene issues are extremely important.
Preferably the body 20 is of a generally elongate shape. This allows a more ergonomic access to the receptacle 1 from either a standing or seated position. The length and cylindrical shape of the body 20 also allows for greater compaction of the waste material contents of the receptacle 1 under its own weight. There are also a number of other advantages arising from the elongate shape, including a reduced visibility of the bottom portion of the receptacle and its contents, better utilisation of space.
As would be appreciated, the length of the receptacle 1 could be adjusted as would be known by people skilled in the art, to accommodate varying environments for the receptacle to be used in, different applications of the receptacle and variations in servicing of the receptacle 1 including frequency of servicing. While preferred, the elongate shape is not essential.
The receptacle 1 as shown in
The flange 24 is also adapted to interact with a support means 60 to allow secure stowage of the receptacle. One option for a support means 60, a wall mounted support means, is shown in
The receptacle 1 is easily removed from the support means 60 by lifting and can be simply swapped for a clean receptacle. The preferred elevated mounting of the receptacle 1 on the wall also provides more ergonomic access for the user from either a standing or seated position. It also creates an uncluttered and pleasing usual effect of the receptacle floating in space above the floor. The height of the supporting means 60 on the wall or other appropriate surface can be positioned to suit the installation requirements of the receptacle 1.
The flange 24 also preferably includes a locking mechanism 27 (best shown in
While the flange 24 is represented in the Figures as being substantially circumferential, it is to be appreciated that the flange 24 need not extend around the full circumference and may include two or more spaced apart flanges, for example.
As seen in
In
An alternative option for support means is also shown in
An elongate extension 66 is engageable with the base 65 at one end and engageable with a projection 62 at the other. The projection is attached to a rail 63 as described in
The elongate extension 66 can be of any shape or size as required, including for aesthetic requirements, as would be appreciated by persons skilled in the art. In
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the protrusion 28 is positioned at the upper portion of the body side 22. When the lid 30 is initially fitted into body 20, the lid 30 is forced into position within the body 20 by pressure exerted in the direction of base 21 of the body 20. This forces the lid side 31 to ride over the protrusion 28. Once the lid 30 is fitted into the body 20, the protrusion 28 sits within the aperture 35 as shown in
As an alternative, the lid wall 31 beneath the aperture 35 (shown at 39 on
The rotation of the lid 30 also allows the position of the aperture 35 to be placed at an angle accessible to the position of the user. This is an additional distinct advantage of the telescopic nature of the receptacle lid 30. In addition to advantages from a minimisation of corners and crevices resulting in hygiene advantages, the ability to rotate the lid thus allowing the user to adjust the position of the aperture 35 is a distinct advantage over the use of hinged or otherwise fixed lids. This allows greater utilisation of space while allowing ergonomic access to the aperture 35 by the user from either a seated or standing position. The rotation also ensures that the aperture 35 is easily accessible to the user when the lid 30 is in the open position, allowing for easy access of the waste into the receptacle 1, while also ensuring that sight into the receptacle 1 is minimised. As will be readily apparent, the ability to rotate the lid 30 to at least a limited extent will be restricted to those receptacles that are cylindrical or otherwise circular in shape such as shown in the preferred embodiments of the Figures. This at least partial rotatability is why the cylindrical option is a very much preferred option. It may also be an option however, to have top portion of the lid 30 rotatable while the lower sides of the lid are not. This may be an option in multisided receptacles but it is not preferred as, again, it will increase the amount of crevices in the device and will also add to cost. It is also a preferred option to have the lid 30 being rotatable only when in open position.
Also as seen in
The lid 30 may also include on the inside surface, for example at 37 in
With reference to
While the above description describes preferred support means, alternatives may also be used. For example, the supporting means may be a claw shaped support which extends from the wall in which the receptacle may fit. As will be apparent the mounting surface to which the receptacle is attached is preferably a vertical wall. However the apparatus could be attached to surfaces having curved or other angular aspects if needed. The combination of receptacle plus means support capable of being a kit. Alternatively, the receptacle may fit into an opening in a bench top so that the flange 24 abuts the bench top surface around the opening, thereby holding the upper portion of the receptacle 1 in an accessible position above the bench top. The lower portion of the receptacle 1 could be obscured below the bench top, for example by means of a cupboard or wall. Such alternative support means which exploit flange 24 and/or the shape of the receptacle 1 would be appreciated by persons skilled in the art.
It would also be appreciated, that while less preferred, the base 21 of the receptacle 1 may be substantially flat, allowing the receptacle 1 to sit independently of a support means on the floor or other such surface. The domed shape of the base as shown in the Figures is however, preferred.
The receptacle 1 may also be made of any suitable material and by manufacturing methods that would be well known in the art. When the receptacle is made of plastics material, these manufacturing methods would include blow or injection moulding techniques for example.
Where the foregoing description there has been made reference to specific components or integers of the invention having known equivalents, then such equivalents are herein incorporated as if individually set forth.
Although this invention has been described by way of example only and with reference to possible embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that modifications or improvements may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as defined in the attached claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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533197 | May 2004 | NZ | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/NZ2005/000107 | 5/30/2005 | WO | 00 | 7/27/2007 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2005/115882 | 12/8/2005 | WO | A |
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