Patent ID: 7096780

Claim:
An apparatus for receiving a variety of different types of consumer trash in high traffic public areas and compacting the received trash together into a compacted mass, comprising: a housing, said housing including a top and a side wall connected to said top, said housing having an upper portion, a lower portion disposed beneath said upper portion, and an intermediate portion disposed between said upper portion and said lower portion; a trash opening defined through said top; a frame disposed within said housing; a trash by-pass chute disposed within said housing and having an entrance aligned generally with said trash opening, said by-pass chute having an exit disposed to empty into said lower portion of said housing; a compacting mechanism carried by said frame and including a platen, said compacting mechanism being configured for moving said platen through a compaction stroke to apply compacting pressure to trash contents located in said lower portion of said housing during at least a portion of said compaction stroke; a hatch disposed to control physical access through said trash by-pass chute, said hatch being configured to selectively pivot between a closed orientation substantially blocking access through said trash by-pass chute and an open orientation substantially permitting access through said trash by-pass chute; a hatch stop disposed at said entrance of said trash by-pass chute; an actuator mechanism connected to said hatch stop, said actuator mechanism being configured to selectively actuate said hatch stop to hold said hatch in said closed orientation with respect to said trash by-pass chute; and said actuator mechanism including a cable spool rotatably mounted to said frame, a cable having one end connected to said spool and an opposite end connected to said hatch stop.