overloaded skips

SKIP WATCH : “I don’t believe it!”

No, I really don’t believe it! A scheme I considered in a previous issue of The Skip, after another one of my Pot Noodle pondering sessions, has actually made it to fruition! Oh, if only my dear mum could see me now (she’s not dead, she just can’t see very well nowadays).
I’m sure you’ll remember my enthusiasm for a ‘Skip Sharing’ scheme, back in issue 37 of The Skip, when I briefly deviated from my favourite passion to explore the terrible reality of underloaded skips. Well, would you believe it, National “Share-A-Skip” Week has now been officially born! I’m just glad I patented the idea at the time in case it takes off. Oh crap, no I didn’t; that was the re-usable bog roll fiasco.

National “Share-A-Skip” Week 2008 runs from the 10th to the 17th of November and should provide a very welcome boost to the skip hire industry, as well as doing a great job towards reducing fly tipping, skip jacking, wasted skip space and all the needless carbon emissions that come with it. You can read all about it at http://nationalshareaskipweek.co.uk, where you can also find that “Skipjacking Jerk” tune that is currently plaguing my mind to the point of near insanity!
Anyway, I’m excited at the prospect of several people sharing one skip, because that surely increases the chances of more juicy overloaded numbers out there. Not that I’d ever (been seen to) encourage the deliberate overloading of a skip merely to satisfy my own personal, twisted fixation with the delightful spectacle.

And that takes me seamlessly, once more, to this month’s ‘overloaded skip porn’! The first beauty, in desperate need of a haircut, was sent to us by Nigel McGillicuddy, of Howard Waste. Nigel said they were “appalled and horrified” by the state of the skip when they turned up to collect it. I suppose it’s a different ball game when you’re the person who actually has to deal with the inconvenience, but I have to say that I felt something more along the lines of “delighted and ever so slightly aroused”!

The second skip, courtesy of John Cinnamond, of R Collard Ltd, is a rare classic. On first glance, it looks like a full skip on a full skip (which, as you can imagine, left me quite weak at the knees). But there actually appears to be some kind of mattress convention going on. I only hope they checked them all thoroughly for students before tying them down.
Please keep your overloaded skip photos coming in. Email them to us or post them to – The Skip, Metropolitan House, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme SK8 7GA

November 21, 2008 at 5:33 pm | Readers' Letters | No comment

Tags: overloaded skips

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Skip Watch

The Art of Skipouflage
Human behaviour is about as predictable as the likelihood that Euro 2008 will provide little in the way of excitement for any English-speaking nations. The minute there’s a sniff of good weather in the UK & Ireland, the shorts and barbecues come flying out… along with the skips. We love all three!
Yes, it’s that time of year again when ‘a bit of pruning’ in the garden can quickly become a devastating scene of conifer carnage. This often has something to do with the genius idea of opening a couple of tinnies to accompany the thirsty work and getting just a little bit overzealous with the shears. It’s all good news for skip hire companies though, of course. And equally great news for people like myself who have developed a trainspotter-like compulsion for gawping at overloaded skips.
All these beauties were sent in to The Skip by TRS Ltd of Merstham, Surrey. The skills employed in loading these up, make me think some people may have missed their calling in life – applying this ability to camouflaging army tanks would make a good career!

They’re all cracking examples, but the one below is an absolute belter – you have to look really hard to see the skip at all under that ridiculous stack of garden waste.

So don’t be too down if your team isn’t in the Euros this month. Get yourself out there with a camera and play a game we can all win – overloaded skip spotting!
Snap skips while the sun shines. Email your bulging skip pics to

or post them to -
The Skip Magazine, Metropolitan House, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire SK8 7GA

June 13, 2008 at 9:11 pm | Overloaded Skips! | No comment

Tags: overloaded skips, skip hire news, skip watch

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SKIP WATCH

I’ve been pondering the recent discussion taking place on our web site about the possibility of traffic wardens issuing fines to law-breaking skips (View skip hire discussion)! I started wondering where it might lead – it’d be pretty hard to clamp a skip, so if the fine was ignored would they tow it away for you? If they then impounded it, wouldn’t they need a waste management license to store it??
Anyway, enough pondering. This month’s cracking pair of overloaded skips come courtesy of Carr & Bircher in Saffron Walden. The delightful contrast between the two pictures made me wonder (which is not technically ‘pondering’) what a nature expert might have to say about them. So, it’s time for…
WHAT WOULD DAVID ATTENBOROUGH SAY?

over loaded skip
“The chameleon skip really is a remarkable species. Take these two pictures here, for example. You can see quite clearly from the markings on the shell of the creature that it is in fact the same animal. And yet, when placed in a different environment, it has an incredible ability to blend in by adapting the appearance of it’s upper body. In the first picture, we see cold, clean industrial lines when the skip becomes cornered within a building. Then, when the skip is back outdoors, it reverts it’s bodily form to reflect the green, luscious surroundings of it’s natural habitat. Absolutely wonderful.”
Please keep your overloaded skip photos coming. Email them through or post them to – The Skip, Baxall Business Centre, Adswood Road, Stockport, SK3 8LF.