# Garbage pail, garbage can, or trash can? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 28, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197 "2006-10-28T01:56:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/21 "2006-10-28T21:34:26Z")
It’s a rubbish bin. The one (that should) be under my computer desk is a waste paper basket. McDonald’s replaced the word TRASH on their in-store bins with RUBBISH or WASTE (I think) a few years ago, after the local English Nazis made an outcry about it. We don’t use the word trash as a noun, but it’s common as a verb (eg. what rock stars do to hotel rooms). ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/22 "2006-10-28T21:44:35Z")
What you call a dumpster we call a skip in the UK. But this has to be qualified. A skip is the sort of thing you can hire for a few days when you want to clear away a lot of rubbish (say when your moving house). The thing is left on your driveway for a few days, you fill it up, then it’s taken away. Average cost, getting on for £100. This is the sort of thing I mean :- [skip](http://www.alansskips.co.uk/skiphire.html) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/23 "2006-10-28T21:49:34Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] What you call a dumpster we call a skip in the UK. But this has to be qualified. A skip is the sort of thing you can hire for a few days when you want to clear away a lot of rubbish (say when your moving house). The thing is left on your driveway for a few days, you fill it up, then it’s taken away. Average cost, getting on for £100. This is the sort of thing I mean :- [skip](http://www.alansskips.co.uk/skiphire.html) [/QUOTE] Yeah, they’re skips here too. Sometimes “rubbish skip” is used. Same deal - hire for a day or three. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/24 "2006-10-28T22:43:45Z")
[QUOTE=Boscibo] Bathroom - wastebasket kKitchen - I just call it the garbage. The thing that the garbage is sitting in is the garbage can. The big can outdoors; the one wheeled to the curb - the trash. [/QUOTE] Ditto ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/25 "2006-10-28T22:54:08Z")
Hmmm, maybe it’s a generational thing. I grew up living all over the country, but several times in NYC. That is where my mother was born. In any case, I always called it a “garbage pail” too, until later years when began to get funny looks. Of course, Microsoft had to call it a “recycle bin” as they stole the idea from Apple. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/26 "2006-10-29T04:21:43Z")
Garbage bin. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/27 "2006-10-29T08:06:38Z")
Waste basket under the desk and in the bathrooms. Kitchen tidy in the kitchen (!) Used to be the rubbish bin outside until it was replaced by a wheely bin, called Otto. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/28 "2006-10-29T08:27:56Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] We’re so poor, we don’t even have all the nouns we need to communicate properly. [/QUOTE] But you only need to buy the vowels! Guess the consonants and put the vowels on layaway. Worked for my grandfather - a poor immigrant who came to this country with nothing but a dream and the shirt on his back. Look at him now - full English vocabulary with nouns, pronouns, adverbs and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/29 "2006-10-29T11:57:58Z")
Garbage pail was only used for the bucket some farmers threw food scraps into for the animals the next day. Most people I know just say garbage or waste. Throw this in the waste, please. Garbage can refered to the 55 gallon trash recepticals that you put by the road for pick up years ago. Trash bin or bin are the new sorted pick up devices for trash. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/30 "2006-10-29T12:35:16Z")
I just call it The Garbage. “Babe, toss that in The Garbage while you’re headed that way.” “Oops! We forgot to take out The Garbage.” ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/31 "2006-10-29T17:01:34Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] What you call a dumpster we call a skip in the UK. But this has to be qualified. A skip is the sort of thing you can hire for a few days when you want to clear away a lot of rubbish (say when your moving house). The thing is left on your driveway for a few days, you fill it up, then it’s taken away. Average cost, getting on for £100. This is the sort of thing I mean :- [skip](http://www.alansskips.co.uk/skiphire.html) [/QUOTE] “Dumpster” has become a generic word, but originally it referred only to the Dempster Dumpster®, a patented bin that a special truck would pick up and dump into the truck. Now, it means any kind of trash bin that can be picked up by a truck. They range from the little ones [http://scottnath.com/past/03-10-unsung2.shtml](http://scottnath.com/past/03-10-unsung2.shtml) that a truck dumps and puts back to these huge ones that must be winched onto a truck and taken to the landfill. [Dumpster ( 1-Jun-1997)](http://www.crash.com/people/michael/LifeInNYC/dumpster.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/32 "2006-10-29T18:31:44Z")
In the U.K. its a dustbin.(though its for rubbish not dust) ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/33 "2006-10-29T20:24:27Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] “Dumpster” has become a generic word, but originally it referred only to the Dempster Dumpster®, a patented bin that a special truck would pick up and dump into the truck. Now, it means any kind of trash bin that can be picked up by a truck. [/QUOTE] Not according to _Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,_ 11th edition, or [the International Trademark Association,](http://www.inta.org/index.php) which both still list “Dumpster” as a registered trademark. The [Wikipedia article on Dumpsters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster) includes the USPTO registration numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/34 "2006-10-30T08:07:13Z")
If the recptacle has food waste in it, or any refuse that decomposes, rots or smells, it’s Garbage. If it merely has paper and plastic waste, it’s Trash. Small waste containers in bedrooms and bathrooms are either wastebaskets or trash cans. Larger recepatacles are Garbage Cans, or The Garbage. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197/35 "2006-10-30T09:54:22Z")
What **Cazzle** said. ‘Trash’ is a term I never use natively - only when I think it is necessary for the comprehension of the listener/reader. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-pail-garbage-can-or-trash-can/378197.md?page=1)