Dumpster is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
brand of
trashWaste is unwanted or unusable material.In living organisms, waste is the unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from them. More commonly, waste refers to the materials that are disposed of in a system of waste management.Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically...
receptacle, and a type of mobile garbage bin or MGB.
The word Dumpster came from the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically loading the contents of standardised containers onto garbage trucks, which was patented by Dempster Brothers in the 1930s. The containers were called Dumpsters, a portmanteau of the company's name with the word dump.
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Dumpster is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
brand of
trashWaste is unwanted or unusable material.In living organisms, waste is the unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from them. More commonly, waste refers to the materials that are disposed of in a system of waste management.Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically...
receptacle, and a type of mobile garbage bin or MGB.
The word Dumpster came from the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically loading the contents of standardised containers onto garbage trucks, which was patented by Dempster Brothers in the 1930s. The containers were called Dumpsters, a portmanteau of the company's name with the word dump. However, it took the
Dempster DumpmasterThe Dempster Dumpmaster, introduced in the 1950s was the first United States commercially successful front loading garbage truck.Built by Dempster Brothers, Inc of Knoxville, Tennessee, they used the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically emptying standardised metal containers, which had been...
, the first successful front-loading garbage truck (which used this system), to popularize the word.
The word
dumpster has had at least three trademarks associated with it by Dempster Brothers, but today it is often used as a
genericized trademarkA genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for a general class of product or service, rather than the specific meaning intended by the trademark's holder...
(see
dumpster (term)A dumpster is a large steel waste receptacle designed to be emptied into garbage trucks. The term is a genericized trademark of the Dumpster brand. The term is also common in Australia although Dumpster is not an established brand there. In British and Australian English, the terms wheelie bin and...
).
Dumpster in popular culture
An episode of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
("
The Otto Show“The Otto Show” is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons
' third season. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on April 23, 1992.The episode was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer...
") satirizes the
genericized trademarkA genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for a general class of product or service, rather than the specific meaning intended by the trademark's holder...
issue when
Bart SimpsonBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
finds school bus driver Otto
homelessHomelessness is the condition and social category of people who don't have a regular house or dwelling because they cannot afford, pay for, or are otherwise unable to maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or they lack "fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" The actual legal...
:
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/8F21.html
- Bart: Otto-Man? You're living in a dumpster?
- Otto: Ho, man, I wish. Dumpster-brand trash bins are top-of-the-line. This is just a Trash-Co waste disposal unit.
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