Complete History of Skips: The Evolution of Waste Disposal
Skip hire and waste disposal is now deemed an integral part and process of the construction history all over the world.
It’s believed the first skip-like container was removed from a lorry in the United Kingdom in 1992 possibly in Southport.
The idea was produced by a businessman by the name of Edwin Walker, coming from a lorry manufacturing background he saw the inconveniences of the distances between households and waste transfer sites.
He designed a system using horse-drawn containers that could be pulled by a Pagefield lorry to ensure distances could be covered at a consistent speed.
Inevitably, people saw Edwin’s idea. This inspired other companies to do the same. Some carried out a different approach, scores of applications followed including a system in the late 1920’s featuring a sideways mounted skip in some London areas.
However, as the waste industry started to grow and provide these convenient ways to dispose of waste, it took nearly another 50 years for a skip to be a commonplace commodity on a building site.
Introduction of the modern skip bin
It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the first claimed modern skip bin was introduced to the UK, this claimed to be done by a company by the name of Biffa.
But the first metal skips, that we use today, were seen on the streets of the UK in the 1960s.
Imported by the London based company George Cross & Co, these first skips were imported from Germany, the birthplace of the skip hire industry. It was an innovative solution to the removal of household waste. George Cross effectively created the foundation on which the modern skip industry is based upon.
The culture of how we deal with waste has evolved massively since then.
It was the norm to get a 5-6 cubic yard skip. Now there are many kinds of skips and bins that come in a variety of sizes and applications to deal with the demands and expectations of modern businesses.
