The present invention relates to a device for sanitizing a solid waste collection bin. Background Art

Nowadays waste collection bins are quite common and are placed along roads for collecting solid waste contained in bags, such bins being usually parallelepiped in shape, open at the top and being provided with a lid that is hinged at the rim of the opening. During operation such lid is usually lowered in the closed position, and is raised by a user who wishes to insert a bag containing waste into the bin, to be then immediately closed again.

It is also quite usual for the motion of rotation of the lid when opening to be capable of being continued until it is overturned in order to allow the bin to be emptied by waste collection personnel.

It is evidently of great importance to provide for efficiently sanitizing the bin in order to safeguard conditions of hygiene, and thus it is the aim of the present invention to provide a device that implements such sanitizing operation automatically and with high frequency, and which features the maximum simplicity of construction. Disclosure of the Invention

This aim is achieved by a device for sanitizing a solid waste collection bin, according to the invention, characterised in that it comprises the features defined in the appended claims. Brief description of the drawings

Further characteristics and advantages will become better apparent from the description of a preferred, but not exclusive, embodiment of the invention, illustrated by way of a non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 shows a bin provided with the device according to the invention, with part of the lid in cutaway view;

Figure 2 shows the sectional view taken along the line II-II of Figure l;

Figure 3 shows a detail of the button of one of the spray pumps; Figures 4, 5, 6 show three steps during the operation of the device according to the invention. Ways of carrying out the Invention

With reference to the figures, the reference numeral 1 generally designates the solid waste collection bin which comprises a container 2 and a lid 3.

The container 2 is provided with two grip handles 4 and 5 supported by brackets, respectively 4a, 4b and 5a, 5b fixed to the container proper, and the lid 3 is hinged by means of lugs derived from it 3a, 3b and 3c, 3d, respectively at the grip handles 4 and 5, the whole as clearly evident in figure 4.

The device according to the invention comprises two bottles 6 and 7 that contain a sanitizing product and which are removably applied, in order to allow refills, to a bracket 8, with a flap 8 a for attachment to a protective housing, the bracket being fixed to the inner surface of the wall of the container 2 provided with the handles 4 and 5, and such bottles are fitted with respective spray pumps 9 and 10 which are provided with buttons 9a, 10a and which, when pressed, emit a spray of sanitizing product from respective nozzles 9b, 10b.

It should be noted that such buttons 9a and 10a are provided with protrusions, 9c for the button 9a, which, by coupling with matching notches provided on the associated spray apparatus, prevent the rotation of the buttons with consequent loss of orientation of the sprays emitted by them.

The reference numeral 11 designates a bar that is located in a position above the buttons 9a, 10a, and which slides in contact with guides 12, 13 fixed to the bracket assembly 8 between a position of pressing such buttons, shown in figures 1, 5, 6, and a position that excludes contact with such buttons, shown in figure 4, as will be better illustrated in the description of operation of the device.

The bar 11 is subjected to the action of springs 12a, 13a which tend to keep it in the position of pressing the buttons 9a, 10a, and moreover it is subjected to the pulling action, in contrast to the action of the such springs, exercised by a cable 14 that is fixed to one end of the bar 11 and at the other end, by way of means of adjustment 14a, to the bracket 15 derived from the keep plate 16 fixed to the lug 3b of the lid 3, and which unwinds associated with guiding pulleys 17 and 18 which are supported by the container 2.

Operation of the device according to the invention is evident from the foregoing description.

When a user wishes to insert a bag of waste into the bin which has its lid 3 closed as shown in figure 1 and the bar 11 kept, by the action of the springs 12a, 13a, in contact with the buttons 9a, 10a, the user raises such lid until it is brought to a position close to that shown in figure 4, and during this rotation of the lid the cable 14 exercises a pull on the bar 11 which defeats the action of the springs 12a, 13a and brings such bar into the position, shown in figure 4, that excludes contact with such buttons. After introducing the bag of waste into the bin, the user lowers the lid, and during this rotation a situation is reached, shown in figure 5, in which the bar 11, pushed back by the springs 12a, 13a makes contact with the buttons 9a, 1 Oa and presses them thus causing the emission of a spray of sanitizing product; the lid then reaches the initial closed position shown in figure 1.

The optimal condition has thus been reached of automatically achieving a spray of sanitizing product inside the bin at each introduction of a bag of waste, and a further spraying is then determined when the waste collection personnel bring the lid 3 to the overturned position shown in figure 6 to allow the bin to be emptied. The invention, thus described, is capable of undergoing numerous modifications and variants, all within the aim of the appended claims: thus for example the means connected to the lid of the bin which are adapted to determine a spraying of the sanitizing product at each insertion of a bag of waste can assume any configuration, and the same is true for the containers of sanitizing product.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2009A001086 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference. Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.