Glancing momentarily at an email received overnight, one of many and in this case more deserving of my spam mail folder than actually reading it, something caught my eye.

It was written in a mix so poor quality English and Chinese characters. There were several badly formatted blocks of text and two pictures as attachments – my suspicions focused firstly on the possibility of a scam and that one or more of the attachments may have contained a virus. Offering to see me a range of clinical waste containers in exchange for a purchase order and credit card number I was about to press ‘delete’, but then…..

One of the pictures was of a waste sack holder. Intended for clinical wastes, it’s apparently unique feature was a particularly wide mouth but with a waisted collar several inches below. It wasn’t clear if this was a feature of the sack itself, or that the collar was a part of the sack holder. Either could have been possible as the picture wasn’t clear and my knowledge of Chinese is non-existent beyond, perhaps, ordering a take-away.

The reasoning for this apparently unique design had its foundation in the design of sharps bins. These have an internal baffle that is intended to prevent spillage if the bin falls, and to prevent access for retrieval of deposited wastes. So too for this waste sack.

It seems to be a reasonable idea, though I don’t recall a waste sack and it’s holder ever falling so perhaps this particular development is an unnecessary step too far.

Notwithstanding, the reasoning was sound. It might prevent spillage if upturned, though I would be more concerned about the ease, or not, with which awkward sized and shaped waste items might be deposited in the first place.

And the name of this special waisted sack?

The Tosser.

We know what the mean, but……

Ian