Pembroke man looks to market his patented invention

“I saw some of these garbage cans were blown over,” he said. “And I said, ‘Wait a minute; they’ve created these garbage cans, but people need a way to keep them grounded.’ So I just wrote that idea down. They need a bin for these things. I wrote it down. Then years later, which was just last year, I submitted it.”

With the help of a patent attorney, Muhammad submitted his idea for “The Apparatus for Confining Trash Cans” to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va., more than a year ago, and he received the patent for the invention on May 3, 2022. The patent is also in the name of his sons, Edward and Jamil Moore, who he bounces ideas off all the time.

“It’s an honor for us to be on the same road as the great inventors out there in Virginia,” Muhammad said. “Patent number 11 million and such and such, wow, I mean that’s something. ... Right there in Alexandria, [Va.], my name is there with the great ones.”

Muhammad has already sunk $20,000 into the invention through attorney fees and product design.

The Apparatus for Confining Trash Cans is an e-shaped frame with walls on each side, a rear wall and a dividing wall between so it can hold two of the big blue trash bins that waste haulers provide for residential customers. The apparatus also has a base with a ramp so the trash bins can be rolled into it, and there are lid straps on the top of the bins and a latch bar on the open front to keep the bins inside.

The apparatus is made mostly of plastic, and it’s large enough to contain the 35- to 96-gallon trash containers. It comes in a single or double unit. A single unit is 31 inches wide, 32 inches deep and 44 inches tall, and a double is 62 inches wide with the same depth and height.

Both sides of the garbage bin are panels that can be used as billboards for advertising, and they can be installed by the roadside and visible at night because of the luminous visual bars.

Now that Muhammad, 58, has the patent, the next step is to move forward with manufacturing The Apparatus for Confining Trash Cans and marketing them to consumers. Muhammad is looking for investors for the startup.