The chances are high that at some point either you or your business has made use of a skip bin. Skip bins are large, reusable waste solutions that can hold a ton of junk and rubbish. They are used for both commercial and domestic situations such as construction projects when a large amount of waste needs to be collected and hauled away.
If you are planning on a big home renovation, or constructing a new office building, or any project that is going to leave behind a lot of trash, then you can hire a skip in Melbourne that can help you contain it all, and when full remove it safely from your work site. Now, the question that most people ask is why are they called ‘skip’ bins?
Strangely enough, the name ‘skip bin’ came from 18th-century European beekeepers! They used straw or wicker baskets to create homes for their honey-producing bee colonies to live in. The term’skip’ comes from the Old Norse word’skeppa’ and the Old English word’sceppe’, both of which were used to describe the beekeepers’ basket. During the 19th century’s Industrial Revolution waste was carted away in large, wheeled baskets that also came to be referred to as ‘skeps‘.
Miners also used these kinds of large bins to carry ore, and also as a unit of weight measurement. A miner’s ‘skep’ was around 18 litres of rock or soil. Over time, ‘skep‘ shifted to ‘skip’, which is still the name today for the steel containers running on railway tracks that remove coal from mines.
In the 1920s, England embraced the handy miners’ skip as a waste removal option. The large, rugged containers were just right for hauling away rubbish. They were built tough to withstand all sorts of trash and junk being tossed in without taking any damage. Once full, they could be wheeled off to landfills by teams of horses or trucks. Pagefield, a truck manufacturing business, was the first to put steel waste bins on the backs of its vehicles, producing garbage trucks.
The metal skip bin technology and their use soon spread from England to become an important component of Australia’s waste management system. Nowadays skips are put to use removing and transporting household, construction, renovation, demolition, and commercial waste. A skip bin can be hired on a daily basis by both homeowners and companies, or rented for longer periods of time. The humble skip bin is a great way to remove large amounts of waste, helping to keep Australia nice and tidy!
