#199: Bombproof bin

It’s often hard to find a refuse bin nowadays in public places, with the result that all sorts of rubbish just gets dumped anywhere.

The shortage of bins is because authorities are rightly concerned that some crazy terrorist type could use one as a place to dump a bomb, allowing him or her a chance to escape whilst the coundown continued. Many bins are also designed to be hard to shift and therefore make quite an effective grenade if blown apart from within.

Today’s invention is a public-space refuse bin consisting of a cannon-like body capable of not being burst apart by even high explosive. Rubbish would be placed in the bin by the public through the blades of a very coarse, turbine-like lid (which could be unlocked and completely removed under normal circumstances for cleaning).

If an explosive device detonates within the bin, the force of the blast is directed upwards, but instead of firing debris aloft only for it to shower down on people with undiminished force, the high friction, heavy turbine in the top would be rotated by the blast, absorbing much of its energy and retaining a large proportion of any shrapnel behind the spinning blades.