Description: NASA crewed spacecraft utilize storage containers for food water, supplies, trash and treated wastes. The trash bags occupy considerable vehicle storage and handling is a challenge to crewmembers. In order to reduce volume of the trash, microbial growth control and water recovery from trash, NASA has developed a heat melt compactor (HMC) device. In the Phase II project, a multipurpose trash bag that is compatible with HMC was demonstrated. The trash bag allowed for the recovery of water from waste and encapsulation of the solid waste after water recovery. In addition, the processed waste was protected against microbial growth for storing during long‐term flights. The multifunctional trash bag developed in this project, benefits NASA in volume reduction, water recovery, radiation shielding and mitigation of contamination release in space.

Benefits: The multipurpose waste disposal bags developed in this project can be incorporated into NASA's next generation space vehicles such as Orion for Long Duration Space Missions as well as in ISS and all future long duration missions that are difficlut to resupply from earth.

Proposed trash bags can be used in collecting a variety of waste materials including medical hazards, toxic chemicals and radioactive wastes. These bags can also be used in domestic applications such as trash collection in a recreation vehicle, hospitals and houses