Our plastic trash cart has cracked

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every Tuesday the county’s trash contractor, Hardin Sanitation, picks up our garbage. Before 7:00 AM I roll the 95-gallon blue plastic cart out to the curb. Last week when I went to put it back behind our house, I noticed there now was a two-foot vertical crack in one corner, as is shown above. The cart was furnished by Hardin. The bar code label on its front has a date of 09-01-19, so it only is about three years old.

 

How did it get cracked? When Hardin empties it, their truck picks it up using a robot arm, as is discussed by Jose Rodrieguez Jr. in an article at Jalopnik on January 7, 2022 titled Here’s how garbage truck robot arms work: an explainer. The arm just should grab a cart by the sides. If it instead squeezed diagonally, it could crack the cart. We are going to ask Hardin to replace it before the crack extends and the bottom falls out, like the one in another article at Bungalower on December 30, 2015 titled Ask Bungalower: How do I get my garbage bin replaced?

 

Carts likely are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Are there good ways to repair a cracked cart? Yes, they can be fusion welded, as shown in an eight-minute YouTube video from Drader Manufacturing titled Learn Plastic Welding >> Weld and repair a garbage bin with a plastic welder. Similar techniques (with a hot air gun and rod) are used to repair HDPE kayaks, as shown in another five-minute YouTube video titled Boat welding.