Flexible plastic trash, leaf and garbage bags have had a dramatic rise in popularity over the last 10 or 15 years, and these containers are typically 25 to 40 gallon capacity bags having thicknesses on the order of 0.015 to 0.035 inches. Because of the thin wall thickness of these containers, they are very flexible and cannot be held in an upright position without some support and, therefore, semi-rigid container racks have been developed over the past years for supporting these plastic bags in an open position where they can be more easily filled with refuse, leaves or excess gardening products.
In many of these containers the bags are placed one at a time within the container with the upper end of the bag folded over the top edge of the semi-rigid container to hold the bag open. After the bag is filled, it is removed from the container and a tie member is wrapped around the top of the bag after being cinched closed by the user. The bag is then picked up manually by the user and transported to another location for subsequent removal.
The process of lifting the filled bag from the container is a difficult one for many people in part because the container itself acts as a seal for the filled bags and creates a vacuum underneath that inhibits movement of the bag upwardly in the container.
Furthermore, carrying the bag by itself is difficult for many people.
Several prior patents show mobile two-wheeled refuse containers for flexible plastic bags including the Brighton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,750, that shows a front opening door opposite a handle assembly and a top opening hinge cover and clamps and loops for holding flexible plastic bags at the top of the container on all sides. While undoubtedly the Brighton container permits the transport of a filled bag within the container from one location to another, and thus eliminates one prior difficulty the user has carrying the filled container from one location to another. However, Brighton discusses nothing whatsoever about the purpose of the front door and, therefore, one must assume that Brighton intends the bag to be removed from the top as opposed to the front door since all prior art containers for flexible bagging operate in this manner.
Several patents, such as the Getz, U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,630, show fastening frames for holding the top of the flexible bag in a refuse container, and a plurality of other patents, such as the Jackson, et at., U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,502; the Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 2,796,309, and the Rich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,132, show separate containers auxiliary to a main refuse container for holding additional plastic bags.
There is also an additional patent, the Bates, U.S. Pat. No. 1,970,727, that shows a leaf incinerator and dump cart where the leaf ashes fall beneath a horizontal grate to a bottom wall having an inclination of about 20 to 25 degrees. A door is provided through which ashes may be removed. The Bates device, however, is not designed to hold flexible plastic bags nor is the bottom wall or the door designed to discharge such a bag. More fundamentally, however, is the fact that the Bates bottom wall is not inclined sufficiently so the entire contents would be dishcarged upon door opening.
It is a primary object of the present invention to ameliorate the problems noted above in mobile refuse containers.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds