My Story



Hello; My name is Dan Horne, and I am the inventor of the Waste-Eze® waste receptacles. The Waste-Eze® waste receptacle represents a quantum leap in waste receptacle technology and the culmination of many years of my experience in inventing and engineering.

Inventing is what I was born to do. I have always been fascinated with new technologies and their effect on the course of history and innovation. To me, inventing at its best can be an art form; using instinct and intuition to not just solve problems, but do it in an imaginative way--to look beyond the obvious and find what Albert Einstein referred to as “Simple, and beautiful” ideas.

My lifelong passion for inventing began at the age of twelve, when using my Tinker Toy set and some rubber bands, I was able to build my own toy car, complete with an independent suspension system. Looking back on that day, my parents were quite impressed with my creation and told me that I would be a great inventor or engineer. Since that time, I have worked on a series of projects, none of which became commercial. However, making money was rarely on my mind as I was focused on the sheer challenge and joy of solving technical problems that intrigued me.

It is often said that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” While that may be true for many inventions, other inventions arise from serendipity and others still from sheer coincidence. In my case, coincidence was the seed. As a corrections officer for 29 years, there were times where boredom set in and the brain took over. One early morning, 2:30 AM actually, I was feeling particularly bored when two inmate trustees arrived to clean the medical department where I was working. While the trustees were cleaning the restrooms, I noticed one of them struggling to tie the right sized knot in a trash bag, just to make it fit around the lip of the trash can. It was at that moment that I realized just how much time and effort was being wasted on such a mundane chore. As I pondered the situation, I soon come to believe that the problem was not with the trash bag, but with the trash can. It was at that point that I thought to myself, “Well; I keep telling myself what a great inventor I’m supposed to be. If I am really that good, I can solve this problem.”



This 2:30 am awakening set me on the path to solve the problem. As I subsequently learned, the traditional trash can had been invented back in 1875. While there have been some design changes since then, for example, covers, foot pedal openers, and the like, the first and most recent truly innovative change was the invention of the plastic trash bag or liner back in the 1950s. I thought, “This is my chance to make a difference.”

At first, I dreamed up the obvious solutions, such as adding hooks or clips to the rim of the can to hold the trash bag in place. While I knew these approaches would work, they were certainly not impressive solutions. In fact, all I was really doing was adding features, and thus complicating the design in order to solve the problem. I knew that to really feel like I had conquered this puzzle, I would need to find that “Simple, and beautiful” idea that Albert Einstein had mentioned. It was then that I visualized the flexing “V” shape that was to become the distinctive feature of Waste-Eze technology.

I knew the moment I had imagined it that I had found the perfect answer. The flexing “V” shape would allow the whole structure to adapt to the size of the bag, and the open sides would enable the air transfer that would make it easier to install and remove the bags.



Initially I was quite proud of myself: I had come up with three solid ideas and solved an age old problem. But then I thought to myself “Oh, come on. With eight billion people on this planet am I really the first to have thought of this? Certainly some MIT graduate must have come up with the same solution, and probably with less effort and in less time.” Yet, in spite of my uncertainty and apprehension, the innovator and inventor in me took over and I decided to roll the dice just the same, so I hired an attorney to do a patent search. When the search was complete, I was shocked to find that not only were there no patents on the idea, but no one else was even close.

I filed my first patent application on the Waste-Eze® receptacle concept on August 17, 2007. I was quite optimistic about my chances for getting a patent; yet, my excitement was short lived. As luck would have it, the attorney working on the case had developed serious health problems--so much so that he had failed to follow through with the initial application, and after several warnings from the US Patent Office, the application was declared to be abandon.

I was visiting a local general attorney here in Naples and mentioned the story and my dismay at the abandonment. He said there was a patent attorney in the next office and perhaps there was something that could be done. I contacted this patent attorney, Edward Welch, who reviewed the case and assured me that it could be revived. I then engaged Mr. Welch to take over the case and, true to his word, he was able to bring the patent application back to life as having been “unavoidably abandoned.” On January 28, 2011, Mr. Welch was able to secure the first of my issued patents, US Patent Number 7,909,200. A second patent application was also filed and subsequently granted, which issued on May 19, 2015 as US Patent Number 9,033,177. After his success with my patents, I was so impressed with Ed’s abilities and knowledge of the subject that I jumped at the chance to make him my partner. Together we have formed Waste-Eze, LLC and have embarked on this new adventure to introduce the world to the Waste-Eze technology and waste receptacles.

Starting back in my childhood years, playing with Tinker Toys on the floor of our mobile home, the Basis for the company Waste-Eze has taken a lifetime to come to fruition. The company was born through countless hours of work by myself and Ed. We are excited by the prospect of our company’s future, and the chance of making people’s lives easier.