Meet Petal, the First Disruptive Innovation in Waste Disposal Since 1875

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Throughout human history, the disposal of waste has looked pretty much the same. Centuries ago, we tossed our garbage in the street, creating dangerous and unsanitary conditions that encouraged the spread of sickness and stink throughout our communities. In 1875, we began storing our waste indoors. Almost nothing's changed since.

Whether food scraps in the kitchen, dirty diapers in the nursery, pet waste, or incontinence products, existing disposal solutions allow foul waste to sit, rot, and fester at room temperature for days on end, creating unsanitary conditions that pollute our homes with horrible smells, mold, bacteria, and unwanted pests.

We’ve tried filters, chemical air fresheners, and environmentally devastating single-use (and sometimes proprietary) plastic liners. But, at their core, waste bins are just open containers ripe with rot, stench, and germs. And we’ve resigned to accept it.

Until now.

Petal is a revolutionary appliance poised to supplant traditional disposal methods in the diaper, organic waste, incontinence, feminine hygiene and pet waste verticals. Its brilliance lies in its conceptual simplicity and design elegance: a sleek, responsibly-sourced, scarily-efficient, and technically-unique appliance that freezes organic waste solid to 0°F in under 35 minutes.

Uniquely designed to fit into any room of your home, Petal's patent-pending freezing technology makes it effortless for consumers to live in clean and healthy environments.

Petal is a familiar surprise. From the outside, Petal is a beautifully-designed, pedal-operated waste bin. Its unique design aesthetic communicates a democratic freshness – an accessible, friendly and welcoming form that melds seamlessly within any home environment. Its outward three-dimensional statement confidently expresses its new and unique technology with lightness and optimism, evoking feelings of health and happiness.

On the inside, Petal combines vacuum insulated panels with vapor-compression refrigeration technology and an innovative design architecture to perform as a hybrid freezer/waste bin at a shocking level of efficiency (less than $1 per month) – naturally stopping odors and putting germs on ice, in a convenient, easy-to-use form factor. Its frigid temperature ensures that nothing leaks or sticks to the reusable plastic pail, eliminating the need for landfill-clogging, single-use plastic liners.

Using Petal is a familiar experience with a far superior – almost delightful – outcome. Simply plug Petal into a standard household outlet, put a bag in (if you so desire) and it's ready for use.

Petal's design challenge began at its conception. Without blueprints or prior versions to build from, Petal took inspiration from aerospace engineering—the discipline used to create rocket ships, fighter jets and other global game-changers.

The "ick-factor" is real and by eliminating it, Petal will play a large role in the adoption of important and ambitious organic waste collection programs.

Beyond the home, Petal’s commercial uses are numerous. Petal has the potential to help every business and industry – from hospitals and nursing homes to daycare centers, restaurants, fairgrounds, and any space where sanitation is a public health concern.

Said simply, Petal represents innovation in its purest sense. It's the kind of transformational idea, product, and technology that will look like

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    David Taffet
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Scott Henderson (Industrial Design)
    Brian Petz (Engineering)
    Primoz Cresnik (Engineering)
  • Software used for this entry:
    SolidWorks, a solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) program was used to simulate the motion of a our five-bar hinge mechanism to produce a smooth lid open/close experience for the user.
  • Patent status:
    pending