The Controversy about the true History and origin of Skip Bins?

Strange Beginnings

If you try to look into the History of the skip bin hire industry, you will find some strange and funny ideas about when and where the industry started. So, to help with a reference point, my concept of the skip bin hire industry is that it is a sub-section of the waste removal industry that started around a hundred years ago, in the late 1920's. There was a need to improve the collection of waste from a location for an individual entity. That was that the service was focused on the needs of an individual or a business and wasn't a service for a community of people.

Mis-givings about names and titles

I have read a few strange articles about the source of the name of the containers used for waste disposal. They imagine that the name for the containers was derived from conical baskets that were woven from willow. These seem like a long shot because there are many other terms that would be used in the waste industry for containers used to carry rubbish. Before the Industrial Revolution, there was far less waste because people were often living hand-to-mouth, where very little was discarded. Food scraps would be reused and/or fed to animals. And if it couldn't be used to feed something, then it would be burnt to heat or light living spaces.

It was only when communities started to grow larger into towns and cities that waste became more of an issue. The ash from household fires and human waste needed to be removed from dwellings and was transported outside of the town or city to be used for farming purposes. This process was described in several Dickens novels, where the material was described as night soil and dust. The containers used to carry the waste were dustbins, and the men and women working in the trade were known as dustmen.

The term dustbin comes from the combination of dust and bin. A bin is a receptacle for holding some commodity. The word dust is older and was included in the first King James Bible 

Genesis 3:19 (KJV), where God tells Adam: 

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

The Tennessee Tussle (1930 to 1940)

Now I don't really know for sure if there really was a struggle or scuffle between Brooks Equipment and Demptsters, both of Knox County, Tennessee. Both companies manufactured heavy equipment for the waste industry in the US. The Load Lugger, a pioneering truck-mounted hydraulic hoist system for handling containers, was designed in the late 1930s by the Brooks Equipment company. The Load Lugger trademark was first used prior to 1938 according to the US Patent Office (Serial No 100090 Trade-Mark 376,327).

George Dempster started patenting ideas for transporting and dumping vehicles starting Feb 1937. This first patent did not include a hydraulic cylinder for lifting the load but used wires, and for this reason, I don't consider it the equivalent of a current-day skiploader. On the 28th April 1942 Dempster filed Patent US-2281183-A for a loading mechanism that included cylinders. 

As this was post Brooks' trademark for their Load Lugger, I believe that it was Brooks Equipment who created the first skip style loader (as pictured at the top of this article), which included a hydraulic cylinder to raise the bin off the ground.

 

Both the Brooks Equipment and Demptsters businesses went on to enjoy success in different markets with their equipment. Brooks Load Luggers were often used for heavy industrial and construction waste, while Dempster-Dumpsters found massive success in the municipal and commercial sectors. The term dumpster which was used for many different types of waste containers, has become the dominant description for any large bin in the US. The term dumpster is used to describe front lift bins as well as RORO bins and trucks. In Australia, we adopted more of a British naming standard, referring to Load Luggers as Skip Bins, RORO equipment as hook lift bins and large commercial and municipal bins as front lift bins.

 

World War II Impact 

World War II had a significant impact on both Brooks Equipment and Dempster Brothers Inc. (the creators of the "Dempster-Dumpster"), primarily by accelerating the adoption of their respective waste management technology and shifting their production focus to support the war effort. 

Key impacts included:

• US Navy Contracts: During World War II, Dempster Brothers Inc. pivoted to manufacturing pontoon boats and other specialized equipment for the US Navy.
• Global Adoption: As a result of these contracts and wartime needs. Dempster Dumpsters were used by the US Navy worldwide
• Wartime Efficiency & Innovation: The urgent need for waste management during the war highlighted the efficiency of both systems that allowed a single driver to handle waste collection, thus saving labor.
• Post-War Expansion: The momentum from the war, including the need to manage rubble and waste in the post-war period, helped the companies. Dempster's patented technology became the standard for municipal waste in the US. In Europe there was a lot of waste created that would drive innovation after the war. 

Post War Innovation in the (1950s onwards)

Following the war, the companies continued to innovate. Dempster introduced the Dumpmaster in the 1950s, which was the first front-loading garbage truck, further capitalising on the success of the wartime-tested dumpster system.

 

In

Western Europe during the early 1950s, driven by the urgent need for efficient debris removal during post-WWII reconstruction, skip loaders took on a new life. Companies in France, Germany and the UK started to produce innovative new skip loaders that could carry multiple bins for delivery and pick-ups.

France: Marrel

• Marrel is widely credited with inventing the modern chain-based skiploader system.
• In 1950, the company launched the Multibenne®, which revolutionised the industry by allowing a single truck to drop off, pick up, and transport multiple interchangeable containers.
• This innovation provided a horizontal loading and unloading solution that was far more efficient than the fixed-body tippers of the era.

Germany: MEILLER Kipper

• Based in Munich, MEILLER capitalised on the opportunity by introducing its first skiploader in 1953.
• The company drew inspiration from American logistics but developed a localised solution to handle the heavy rubble of destroyed German cities.
• MEILLER’s innovation was a milestone for the German construction and waste management sectors during the "Economic Miracle" (Wirtschaftswunder).

Britain: Sheppard Meiller (Sheppard Fabrications)es.

• In the United Kingdom, the business Sheppard Fabrications (later known as Sheppard Meiller) became the dominant force by securing the rights to the German Meiller design.
• They adapted the system for the British market, where it became the standard for municipal waste and construction site "skips."
• While Marrel remained a strong competitor in the UK, the "Sheppard Meiller" name became synonymous with the skiploader mechanism for several decades.