Trash bag with malodor control

Abstract

The trash bag for receiving refuse may include a bag body, the bag body including an inside surface, an outside surface, and a rim defining a mouth with a hem and a draw tape in the hem. The entire bag, the hem area, or the draw tape may contain fragrance, malodor control agents, and fragrance release inhibitors.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 292,347, filed Jan. 5, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to trash bags, and particularly to trash bags with malodor control features, and more particularly to draw tape trash bags with malodor control features.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Plastic trash bags have long been used to line trash receptacles. The trash bags encourage sanitary conditions by preventing the refuse from contacting the receptacle. Trash bags also provide a convenient way to remove trash from a receptacle for transport or disposal. Because trash often contains food scraps and other malodor producing items, attempts have been made to produce fragranced trash bags to hide the malodors produced by the bag contents. It is easy to apply volatile fragrance components directly to malodors in the air,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]When the hem has a length shorter than the length of the bottom of the bag, the hem may fit snugly at the top of the trash can or may limit the volume of air circulating into and out of the trash bag and effectively control malodors inside the bag from being offensive at the bag opening. When the hem is patterned, the interior of the hem may contain restricted areas for the build-up of fragrance concentration. This may also help to effectively control malodors inside the bag from being offensive at the bag opening.

Problems solved by technology

It is much more difficult to control malodors using passive diffusion from plastic trash bags.

One of the difficulties is that many fragrance and malodor control agents are not soluble in the typical polyethylene composition of plastic trash bags.

Another difficulty is that much of the fragrance and malodor control agents that can be volatilized at ambient temperatures to control malodor formed by trash are substantially volatilized during the trash bag production process, which involves high temperature melt extrusion of polyethylene or other plastics.

This volatilization during the production process causes environmental issues within the manufacturing plant, wastes valuable volatile fragrance and odor control agents, and changes the notes of the fragrance and odor control agents as the components are differentially volatilized.

These difficulties are particularly apparent in the production of draw tape trash bags, where the bags are large, the production process is complex, and the bags are used in an open configuration.

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