Chute

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For other uses of the word "chute", see chute (disambiguation).

A chute is a vertical or inclined path, channel, or passage through which objects are moved by means of gravity.

[edit] Building chute

Chutes are in common use in buildings to allow the rapid transport of items from one location inside a building to another.

For example, laundry chutes in hotels are placed on each floor to allow the expedient transfer and collection of dirty laundry to the hotel's laundry facility without having to use elevators. In popular culture stories, laundry chutes are commonly used as means for the protagonist to quickly escape.

Garbage chutes are common in high-rise apartment buildings and are used to collect all the building's garbage in the one place. Often the bottom end of the chute is placed directly above a large waste receptacle. This makes garbage collection more efficient and hygienic.

Escape chutes are used and proposed for use in evacuation of mining equipment and high-rise buildings.[1][2]

An elevator is not a chute since it does not operate by means of gravity.

[edit] Logging chute

Chutes used in the logging industry are the timber slide and log flume. These are no longer in common use.