Overexertion back injuries rarely occur as a result of a single event or accident. The human spine typically undergoes weeks or months of heavy lifting and awkward work postures until some element of the back, including discs, vertebrae and muscles, gives out. Even for people who or not involved in day to day manual labor, injuries can result from just ordinary household tasks like taking out the trash, cleaning up the yard and discarding landscape waste, etc.
Trash bags are generally designed to have a sealed seam on the bottom and some sort of closure at the top. Closures include twist ties, drawstring handles, extensions on the top of the bag that can be tied—so-called “handle tie” bags, etc. Once closed, the user generally picks the bag up from the closure and puts it into a trash receptacle. This lifting of the waste bag from one point, generally out away from the body, is not ergonomic, and can cause injury or at the very least, fatigue.
In addition, in order to get a better grip on the bag a user may grab the body of the bag. If there is an unseen sharp object in the bag, the user runs the risk of injury by the unseen object when the user grabs the bag. Even if the user does not grab the body of the bag, the bag will typically dangle next to the user's legs as it is carried, and the user may be injured if the sharp object hits the user's leg.
Additionally, often the bag is not used anywhere near its full capacity because of concerns that the bag will rip or tear due to the poor distribution of weight. Users often cannot lift as much waste as they may desire because the awkwardness of the hanging bag prevents them from lifting more. This makes currently available fillable bags inefficient and not cost-effective.
This also applies to pre-filled or pre-packaged materials in bags. A materials supplier or manufacturer may package materials such as sand, concrete, potting soil, etc. in smaller bags to allow easier handling and movement. If there were a way to allow users to handle the material more easily, the suppliers could package the materials in larger amounts, reducing the number of bags needed per pound of material.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds