Abstract:
The recycling receptacle described herein addresses these problems by providing a physical examples of items to be recycled as part of a recycling receptacle. The recycling receptacle includes a container portion for storing material to be recycled in a chamber and a communication portion for communicating what material should be recycled. The communication portion includes an opening in fluid communication with the container portion chamber and a visible cell that contains examples of materials that should be recycled.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of provisional application No. 61/934,789 filed Feb. 2, 2014. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    In the last 20 years, recycling evolved from can and bottle store returns to a widely accepted and participated-in practice. Now, material recovery facilities sort and process recyclables, municipalities distribute special receptacles for collecting recycling, and manufactured products are marketed as recycled in order to gain competitive advantage. 
         [0003]    In the United States alone, 33% of waste is recycled, which corresponds to over 80 million tons of waste. Daily, this accounts for over 1.5 pounds of recycled waste per person per day. 
         [0004]    Despite widespread recycling, it can be confusing to would-be recyclers because different geographic areas handle waste materials differently. Some areas recycle certain plastics but not others. Some accept all recyclable materials in a single stream and sort them for later processing. Some require that certain recycled products be separated from others. Some exclude specific products from being recycled. 
         [0005]    There are a lot of recycling rules and if a recycler is familiar with the material rules, a recycler only knows the recycling rules for their own town, and thus, when they approach a recycling receptacle in a public place, they face a confusing choice because not every recycling receptacle has a descriptive label beyond “recycling.” And even those that are labeled are often just labeled with a graphic of a bottle or newspaper, with no differentiator between other types of recyclable materials. The would-be recycler may not know if the receptacle accepts glass or plastic. Clear plastic or pigmented. The answers depend on local recycling regulations and existing recycling facilities. 
         [0006]    The current apparatus seeks to solve these problems in an easy-to-use and straightforward way. 
       SUMMARY OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0007]    The recycling receptacle described herein addresses these problems by providing physical examples of items to be recycled as part of a waste receptacle. The receptacle includes a container portion for storing material to be recycled in a chamber and a communication portion for communicating what material should be recycled. Composted, or otherwise disposed of. The communication portion includes an opening in fluid communication with the container portion chamber and a visible cell that contains examples of materials that should be placed in the container. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the receptacle. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  shows a top view of the receptacle of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  shows a perspective view of a portion of the receptacle of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  shows an exploded side elevation view of the portion of  FIG. 3 . 
           [0012]      FIG. 4   a  shows a variation of the exploded side elevation view of the portion of  FIG. 4 . 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  shows a perspective view of a second embodiment of the receptacle. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  shows a perspective view of a third embodiment of the receptacle. 
           [0015]      FIG. 7  shows different views of a prototype of a portion of the receptacle. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0016]      FIGS. 1-4   a  show an overview of one embodiment of the receptacle. As shown, a receptacle  100  comprises a container portion  110  and a communication portion  120 . The container portion  110  provides an open cavity  112  for receiving and storing recyclable materials placed in the receptacle  100 . The container portion  110  may be subdivided into more chambers  112  to receive multiple recycling streams but as shown in  FIGS. 1-4   a , the container portion  110  has only one chamber  112 . Although most of the examples herein are discussed in the context of recycling, the container  100  could also be used for composting, separating waste streams, and disposing of hazardous materials. 
         [0017]    The communication portion  120  may be made from a see-through material (like a transparent UV-resistant polymer) and has at least one opening  130  that is in fluid communication with the chamber  112  for receiving recyclable materials. Recyclable materials deposited into the opening  130  fall into the chamber  112  for later collection. To prevent pests and odors, the opening  130  may have flaps, a hinged door, or other easily removable obstacle. 
         [0018]    While the communication portion  120 &#39;s lid  150  may be transparent, the base  140  may be opaque. The advantage of the base portion  140  being opaque is that it blocks the view of the waste in the container portion  110 , which some people or businesses may find distasteful. The opacity of the base  140  may be achieved through (1) an opaque material choice for the base, (2) painting or dying the base  140 , (3) lining the base  140 &#39;s interior to prevent seeing the waste. An opaque base  140  may also better integrate into the appearance of the container portion  110 , and also make for better viewing of the objects therein. 
         [0019]    The container portion  110  and communication portion  120  may be connected or removable from one another, but as shown in  FIGS. 1-4   a , they are removable from one another. When collecting recyclable materials from the chamber  112 , the communication portion  120  may be moved out of the way to better access the chamber  112 . As shown in  FIG. 4   a , the communication portion  120  includes a flange  124  that extends from the communication portion  120  and engages the container portion  110 &#39;s interior surface. The engagement may be a press fit, threaded, or use attachment means like screws or bolts. 
         [0020]    The communication portion  120  defines a cavity and may have two parts, a base  140  and a lid  150  that generally bound the bottom and top of the communication portion  120  respectively. The base  140  and lid  150  may be attached to one another in a press fit, screw fit, or other attachment, including a locking attachment to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the base  140  and lid  150 . The base  140  and lid  150  define a cavity that is further subdivided into cells  160  separated by cell dividers  170 . 
         [0021]    The cells  160  may hold examples of the types of items that can be recycled. Thus, a recycler who approaches a receptacle with a clear plastic water bottle and a white plastic yogurt container can quickly scan the items in the cells  160  to determine if the item being disposed of is acceptable. The communication portion  120  thus serves as both a lid to the container portion  110  and a means of communicating what is accepted for recycling. 
         [0022]    The different cells  160  serve to group like items. Thus, one cell may contain different kinds of clear plastics that are acceptable while another may contain white plastics. Alternatively, one cell  160  may contain bottles and liquid containers while another contains paper and cardboard. The organization of what is in each cell  160  would be up to the manager of the recycling receptacle  100 . 
         [0023]    The cells  160  and their contents&#39; effectiveness may be enhanced with labels  190  like METAL, GLASS, PAPER, etc. The combination of the labels and example products will help a recycler who approaches a recycling receptacle  100  decide what should be placed therein. 
         [0024]      FIG. 5  shows an alternate embodiment for multi-stream recycling where different recycling streams must be separated. Thus, instead of one chamber  112 , the container  200 &#39;s container portion  220  has separate chambers  212   a ,  212   b ,  212   c , and  212   d —one for each recycling type stream. The chambers  212   a ,  212   b ,  212   c , and  212   d  are in fluid communication with the openings  230   a ,  230   b , and  230   d  (the opening that would be  230   c  cannot be seen in  FIG. 2 ) in the communication portion  220 . 
         [0025]    The communication portion  220 &#39;s cells  260   a ,  260   b ,  260   d , as shown, surround their corresponding opening  230   a ,  230   b ,  230   d . In use, each cell could be filled with example recyclables, thus communicating to a recycler the type of product that should be inserted into each corresponding opening. 
         [0026]    Similar to the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 1-4   a , the communication portion  220  may have labels  290 , and the communication portion  220  could be removable from the container portion  210 . 
         [0027]    The communication portion  120 ,  220  may be a single item that can be retrofit to an existing container size, which reduces the cost of distributing the entire receptacle since the container portion  110  can be reused. 
         [0028]    In either embodiment, the shape of the communication portion  120 ,  220  is not fixed and may be round, polygonal, hemispherical, pyramidic, prismatic, etc. 
         [0029]    The lid  150  and base  140  may be separable or connected, as long as the cells  160  are accessible. The lid  150  and base  140  may be secured together by a lock or, after insertion of recycling example items, permanently sealed. The lid  150  and/or base  140  may have holes  142  to help ventilate the cells  160  or be sealed to prevent outside contamination. The lid  150  may overlap the base to prevent water from entering the cells  160 . 
         [0030]    Although in the examples shown, the receptacle is shown as top loading, a front loading receptacle is also possible, the advantage being that water will not enter the receptacle as easily. 
         [0031]      FIG. 6  shows a third alternate embodiment receptacle  600 . Although the other receptacles have been shown in the context of recyclable materials, receptacles could also be used, as discussed above, as trash and/or composting bins. Examples of trash and compost waste might need to be shown, at times, in model form instead of using actual waste, in order avoid odors, pests, and biodegradation. In such a receptacle  600 , a container portion  610  and communication portion  620  define the receptacle  600 . The container portion  610  may comprise chambers  612   a ,  612   b , and  612   c  for trash, recycling, and compost respectively. The communication portion  620  is similar in that it defines a cavity for storing example materials in separate chambers  660   a ,  660   b , and  660   c . The cavities  660   a ,  660   b , and  660   c  surround an opening  630   a ,  630   b , and  630   c  that allows waste, recyclables, or compost to pass into the chambers  612   a ,  612   b , and  612   c . 
         [0032]    The receptacle could also be used for advertising, by either placing advertisements on the receptacle, or stocking recyclable examples in the cells that not only communicate recycling types but also serve as advertisements. Thus, a person might see a multi-stream communication portion for glass, metal, plastic and paper, and in each cell, a corresponding Coca-Cola® product demonstrates the proper items for recycling. 
         [0033]    Another embodiment of the receptacle could be located, and branded for specific locations showing examples of recyclable, compostable and trash-able materials from that location. Thus, a receptacle in a Starbucks could have examples for types of waste materials generated from that Starbucks. The recycling examples in the communications portion could also serve the purpose of letting the public know that the example products are recyclable or compostable, which capitalizes on the goodwill generated from letting the public know that the example products are recyclable or compostable. 
         [0034]      FIG. 7  shows another embodiment wherein the communication portion  720  has an opening  730 , a lid  750  hingedly connected to a base  740  through a hinge  755 . The base  740  includes cells  760 , and the base  740  is secured to the lid  750  using an openable lock  757 . 
         [0035]    While the invention has been described with reference to the embodiments above, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that various changes or modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the claims.