A dumpster is a movable waste container designed to be brought and taken away by a special collection vehicle, or to a bin that a specially designed garbage truck lifts, empties into its hopper, and lowers, on the spot. [1] [2] The word is a generic trademark of Dumpster, an American brand name for a specific design. Generic usage of skip , or wheelie bin may be used in other English speaking countries. [3] [4]
The word "dumpster", first used commercially in 1936, [5] came from the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically loading the contents of standardized containers onto garbage trucks, which was patented by Dempster Brothers in 1935. [6] [7] The containers were called Dumpsters, a blending of the company's name with the word dump . The Dempster Dumpmaster, which became the first successful front-loading garbage truck that used this system, popularized the word.
The word dumpster has had at least three trademarks associated with it by Dempster Brothers, [8] [9] [10] but today it is often used as a genericized trademark. All three trademarks have since either been expired or cancelled. [11]
A dumpster is sometimes considered synonymous with a skip. [4] However, there are functional differences between them. A skip is intended to be loaded onto a vehicle and transported to another location. Dumpsters, in contrast, have their contents emptied into a special vehicle, and are seldom moved from their locations. [12]
The main purpose of a dumpster is to store garbage until it is emptied by a garbage truck for disposal. [12] Dumpsters can be used for all kinds of waste, or for recycling purposes.
Most dumpsters are emptied by front-loading garbage trucks. These trucks have large prongs on the front which are aligned and inserted into arms or slots on the dumpster. Hydraulics lift the prongs and the dumpster, eventually flipping the dumpster upside-down and emptying its contents into the garbage truck's hopper (storage compartment). Other dumpsters are smaller and are emptied by rear-loading trucks. Dumpsters are typically emptied outside of peak traffic hours. [12] The frequency at which dumpsters are emptied varies from community to community, often ranging from daily to weekly, depending on the volume of trash generated. [13]
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Many businesses, apartment buildings, schools, offices, and industrial sites have one or more dumpsters, generally ranging from 0.5 to 8 cubic yards (0.38 to 6.12 m3), to store the waste that they generate. [14] [15]
Waste storage containers can be made from a wide variety of materials, including steel and fiberglass. [14] Plastic dumpsters became available in the 1970s. [16]
In the United States, 96-US-gallon (0.36 m3) dumpsters (also known as "roll carts" or "toters") are used by small businesses and homes where a normal bin would be too small, but a regular dumpster would be too large. These are emptied by rear-loading trucks or by side-loading trucks purpose-built for emptying roll carts of this and smaller sizes. [17]
Roll-offs, sometimes called roll-off dumpsters or containers or open-top dumpsters or containers, are larger dumpster trailers ranging from 10 to 45 cubic yards (7.6 to 34.4 m3) and are used at demolition sites, clean-outs, renovations, construction sites, factories, and large businesses. These containers are normally carried by very large trucks with hydraulic arms which load and unload the containers with ease, thus allowing these trucks to place these containers in a relatively unobtrusive position.
Roll-off dumpsters are available in a variety of sizes to fit different situations. The size needed will generally depend on three factors: volume of material, type of material, and location or placement of the dumpster. For example, heavy materials like bricks or stones should be placed in smaller dumpsters so the loaded container does not exceed weight limits for transportation.
Dumpster diving involves persons voluntarily climbing into a dumpster to find valuables, such as discarded metal scrap, or simply useful items, including food and used clothing. It can also be a method of investigation (e.g., looking for discarded financial records, private papers, or evidence of a crime). Going through garbage containers that are not strictly speaking dumpsters is nevertheless often referred to as dumpster diving.
Dempster Brothers, Inc. of Knoxville, Tennessee, was an industrial firm that made waste collection vehicles including the Dempster Dumpmaster and Dempster Dinosaur. The firm was originally established by George Roby Dempster with his brothers Thomas and John Dempster. [18]
The company is notable for popularizing the word dumpster in the United States, which eventually became a generic trademark.
The Dempster Dumpmaster, introduced in the 1950s, [19] was the first commercially successful, front-loading garbage truck in the United States. The product uses the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically emptying standardized metal containers, which had been patented by the company in 1937. It had arms at the front that picked up a dumpster and lifted it over the cab to tip it into the hopper. A rearward-traveling compacting panel compressed the garbage stored in the truck and was also used to push it out through a door at the back when it was being emptied.
Dumpster diving is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is not confined to dumpsters and skips specifically and may cover standard household waste containers, curb sides, landfills or small dumps.
A railroad car, railcar, railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck, also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.
A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish trucks, or garbage trucks, while in the U.K. dustbin lorry, rubbish lorry or bin lorry is commonly used. Other common names for this type of truck include trash truck in the United States, and refuse truck, dustcart, junk truck, bin wagon or bin van elsewhere. Technical names include waste collection vehicle and refuse collection vehicle (RCV). These trucks are a common sight in most urban areas.
A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery.
A compactor is a machine or mechanism used to reduce the size of material such as waste material or bio mass through compaction. A trash compactor is often used by business and public places like hospitals to reduce the volume of trash they produce. A baler-wrapper compactor is often used for making compact and wrapped bales in order to improve logistics.
Shelvoke and Drewry was a Letchworth, Hertfordshire, manufacturer of special purpose commercial vehicles. It was best known for its innovative waste collection vehicles that were the preferred choice of municipal authorities in the UK together with their gully emptiers, cesspool cleaning vehicles and street watering and washing vehicles.
The Rotopress is a waste collection vehicle manufactured by the German company Faun Umwelttechnik and formerly by KUKA. It uses a rotating drum to compact waste, and has its origin in a series of designs built by KUKA since the 1920s. The name "Rotopress" was first used in 1977, and has been used on subsequent models by the company, and by other companies under licence.
A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped with an open-box bed, which is hinged at the rear and equipped with hydraulic rams to lift the front, allowing the material in the bed to be deposited ("dumped") on the ground behind the truck at the site of delivery. In the UK, Australia, South Africa and India the term applies to off-road construction plants only and the road vehicle is known as a tip lorry, tipper lorry, tipper truck, tip truck, tip trailer or tipper trailer or simply a tipper.
George Roby Dempster was an American businessman, inventor, and politician, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the first half of the 20th century. Dempster is known for the invention of the Dempster-Dumpster, a now-commonly-used trash receptacle that can be mechanically emptied into garbage trucks. During the 1910s and 1920s, the Dempster Brothers Construction Company, operated by Dempster and his brothers, built a number of roads and railroads across the Southern Appalachian region. Dempster also served as a city manager and mayor of Knoxville, where he became known for his political battles with eccentric Knoxville businessman Cas Walker and Knoxville Journal editor Guy Smith Jr.
A waste collector, also known as a garbage man, garbage collector, trashman, binman or dustman, is a person employed by a public or private enterprise to collect and dispose of municipal solid waste (refuse) and recyclables from residential, commercial, industrial or other collection sites for further processing and waste disposal. Specialised waste collection vehicles featuring an array of automated functions are often deployed to assist waste collectors in reducing collection and transport time and for protection from exposure. Waste and recycling pickup work is physically demanding and usually exposes workers to an occupational hazard.
A skip (or skip bin) is a large open-topped waste container designed for loading onto a special type of lorry called a skip loader. Typically skip bins have a distinctive shape: the longitudinal cross-section of the skip bin is either a trapezium or two stacked trapezia. The lower trapezium has the smaller edge at the bottom of the skip bin, and a longer edge at the top. The smaller edge on either end is lower which makes it easier to load. Where there is an upper trapezium, it has the smaller edge at the top. There is a sloping floor or wall at each end. There are usually two lugs on each side of the bin onto which chains can be attached, permitting the heavy skip to be lifted onto and off a skip lorry or skip truck. A special skip-carrying lorry or crane is used.
Waste collection is a part of the process of waste management. It is the transfer of solid waste from the point of use and disposal to the point of treatment or landfill. Waste collection also includes the curbside collection of recyclable materials that technically are not waste, as part of a municipal landfill diversion program.
A waste container, also known as a dustbin, rubbish bin, trash can, and garbage can, among other names, is a type of container intended to store waste that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" are more common in American English usage. "Garbage" may refer to food waste specifically or to municipal solid waste in general.
A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. The combination of a semi-trailer and a tractor truck is called a semi-trailer truck.
Ground support equipment (GSE) is the support equipment found at an airport, usually on the apron, the servicing area by the terminal. This equipment is used to service the aircraft between flights. As the name suggests, ground support equipment is there to support the operations of aircraft whilst on the ground. The role of this equipment generally involves ground power operations, aircraft mobility, and cargo/passenger loading operations.
A specialized set of jargon describe the tools, equipment, and employment sectors used in the trucking industry in the United States. Some terms may be used within other English-speaking countries, or within the freight industry in general. For example, shore power is a term borrowed from shipping terminology, in which electrical power is transferred from shore to ship, instead of the ship relying upon idling its engines. Drawing power from land lines is more efficient than engine idling and eliminates localized air pollution. Another borrowed term is "landing gear", which refers to the legs which support the front end of a semi-trailer when it is not connected to a semi-truck. Some nicknames are obvious wordplay, such as "portable parking lot", in reference to a truck that carries automobiles.
In North America, a roll-off is usually an open-top dumpster characterized by a rectangular footprint, utilizing wheels to facilitate rolling the dumpster in place. The container is designed to be transported by special roll-off trucks. There are two types of delivery trucks for the bins based on bin size, and they are: Hook lift bins and Roll-off bins. Roll-offs are commonly used to contain loads of construction and demolition waste or other waste types. While most roll-off containers have a swinging door on the end for easier disposal of waste, some roll-off containers are not open-top and are used with commercial or industrial trash compactors.
A roller container is a container type that can be carried by trucks to be pushed to ground level by help of a hook and level arm with the container possibly sliding on steel roller wheels.
A bin tipper, also known as a bin-tipper, bin lifter, cart dumper or Dumpmaster, is a machine which mechanically lifts and inverts bins/carts for the purpose of emptying them. Bin tippers are a type of lifting equipment used in many industries, including waste management, food processing, chemical manufacturing and facility management.
