National Skip Hire Association – Sign Up Now!
Dear The Skip,
After a very interesting visit to the Recycling & Waste Management Exhibition at Birmingham NEC it was a pleasure to see so many companies presenting their services in such a professional manner. Steve Wild of “The Skip” magazine introduced me to many of the exhibitors and the feedback was tremendous with regard to the setting up of The National Skip Hire Association. I can honestly say that the feeling was 100% positive and the support I received on the day was overwhelming.
However, the truth of the matter is somewhat different, after inserting 3900 flyers in the last issue of the “The Skip” we have received only 11 replies, from those 11 only 6 have actually signed up to the NSHA.
We have now taken on a new membership coordinator, Mark Williams and he will be contacting Skip Hire firms over the next few months to invite them into membership.
My background for the last 23 years, has been running a very successful trade association that was started from scratch and has now developed into the largest in its field. I am fully aware of the pitfalls and hard work that goes into the running of a successful trade association and it is difficult to start from scratch but doggedness and enthusiasm will prevail. I have so much confidence that the National Skip Hire Association will become a force to be reckoned with, membership will grow steadily over the next few years and success brings success.
All successful trade associations are only successful because they work on numbers. We are looking to recruit around 1000 members in year one and grow from there, once we have sufficient numbers we will be able to work on issues that are important to our industry. You all know how difficult it is to get Government to listen to you as an individual. But as a major force they do listen and things do get done.
I urge you all to send in your application forms and get the National Skip Hire Association off the ground – we need to work together. Our website is almost ready, all members will have a free webpage linked to their own and there will be an Associate members website for manufacturers of waste/recycling machinery, suppliers of vehicles/skips etc.
If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact me on
01206 307107 or visit our temporary website at www.nsha-uk.co.uk
Allan Buchan
National Skip Hire Association
THE SKIP SAYS: Thanks for your letter Allan. It seems a huge shame that more skip hire companies haven’t responded to the flyers as yet, but I’m sure many firms out there who are reading this now, will be in touch over the next few weeks. Best of luck with your plans and make sure you keep ‘The Skip’ regularly informed as to how things are shaping up!
Shooting Intruders
Dear The Skip,
I read with interest your account of bears raiding bins in Canada (Scare Bears – Page 5, Issue 25 – and it was Colorado USA – but we’ll let you off Roger! – Ed).
Whilst brown bears and grizzleys are a bit thin on the ground in the Bury area, we do have nocturnal visits from some strange looking creatures! Usually dressed in tatty anoraks and wearing baseball caps, they appear in the night and scour our skips for anything of value. Despite the barbed wire and greased walls they still manage to enter and leave at will too.
What they find is a mystery to me. Anyone who has ever met a skip driver knows that nothing worth a jot is left in a skip once they’ve been through it! Like specially trained police dogs they can sniff out copper, brass and anything else of value.
We have CCTV cameras in our yard and I have watched our night-time visitors scouring the skips. One once spent ages filling a rucksack with Playstation 2 games, but all the boxes were empty and he didn’t bother checking them! It’s legal in Bury to shoot intruders – but only with a video camera!
Yours
Roger Upton,
Dusty Bin Skips, Bury
THE SKIP SAYS: Thanks for your very witty letter Roger. The similarities between Grizzleys and Scallies are clearly numerous!
Dubai Query
Dear The Skip,
Are there any skip companies in Dubai?
I am an Australian Project Manager working for a new company in Dubai that
want to set better standards of safety and site cleanliness.
I\’m fitting out a new building for Dubai Properties and would like to use
skips on this proiect and mobile wheely bins to bring the rubbish down.
If you can assist with some contacts I’d much appreciate it.
Kind regards,
Craig Adams
THE SKIP SAYS: Thanks for your letter Craig. Good to hear The Skip magazine is being read all over the world! Although you’ve left no contact details, some of our readers may be able to help by contacting us with their ideas.
Readers! If anybody out there knows of any skip companies in Dubai, contact us at the usual address and we’ll post the message up onto our website for Craig.
These letters originally appeared in Issue 27 of The Skip magazine

What a weird and wonderful world the internet is! There was a time not so long ago when all it was useful for was buying a book or looking at rude pictures on. Now you can find almost anything on it whether it’s footage of Britney Spears’s latest woeful MTV “comeback” or some anonymous skip truck driver dumping rubbish on the drive of a non-paying customer

It’s got it all!
Just last week I stumbled across a website called “NYC Garbage”, where one New York resident has started selling see-through plastic boxes filled with “authentic New York garbage” (www.nycgarbage.com). The boxes also have date stickers on them so you know when the rubbish was picked and the “artist’s” signature underneath.
The man behind the idea is Justin Gignac and his aim was to try to sell something, “that nobody would normally want”. It’s a simple premise and the beauty of the idea is that the rubbish, arranged in the attractive plastic boxes by Justin, ends up looking rather pretty.
The boxes are also leak-proof and odourless and so far Justin has sold 500 of them to people from all corners of the globe. Proof, if proof be needed, that some people will quite literally by any old tat.
That said, I do quite like Justin’s boxes. Their aesthetically pleasing – a bit like all your photos of overloaded skips – however annoying it must be for all you hard working skippies to have to pick them up all the time, I love seeing your photos of them.
This month has been the best yet for entries. I’ve been inundated with photos and I have to say some of them have to be seen to be believed.

The first of this months three chosen entries (above) comes from Wayne Basham, Sales Manager at Dunstable Waste Group in Luton and it’s a real ‘fenced-in fatty’ of a skip. What makes it even more staggering is that this photo was supposedly taken after the customer had taken some off the top in order to ‘level the load’!

The second entry (above) comes courtesy of the lads at Kelly’s Skips in Swindon. The boys were very impressed by the way this customer had “cast a magic spell” that made 6 yrds worth of fencing fit into a 3 yrd skip. It’s another classic example of the ‘fencing’ technique employed by many a cheeky skip-hirer across the country – and a well organised one too.

This months winner (above), was sent in by Swift Skips in Telford, and it has to be the best yet in my eyes. The staff at Swift described it as a, “4 yard skip with 40 yards of rubbish in” – which isn’t far from the truth. It’s got rubber tyres in, things that look like they’re exploding out of it – it’s an absolute mess. There’s no vaguely pretty ‘fencing’ technique going on here – it’s just a great, big monstrosity.
The Swift Skips photo will clearly take some beating but if you see something even more ridiculous on your travels and think it’s worthy of inclusion here – take a photo of and email your entry through to the usual address or post it to – The Skip Magazine, Metropolitan House, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7GA
The gauntlet has once more been laid down!

Over twenty fire-fighters were called to battle a blaze at a South Wales recycling plant recently when fifty tonnes of waste and plant machinery caught fire.
The fire at Nolan Recycling Ltd in Stormy Down, Bridgend, took hold in the early hours of the morning and fire-fighters from across South Wales were called to the plant to help put out the huge blaze.
As yet Police haven’t been able to confirm how the fire had started or whether it’s being treated as suspicious or not.
Fortunately no-one was injured in the blaze but it is thought that much of the building has suffered extensive damage from the fire.
A spokesman for South Wales Police said, “The fire caused a bit of disruption to traffic on the A48.
“We are asking workers at neighbouring quarries to use other routes.”
Nolan Recycling Ltd is a well respected, family-run business, with over twenty five years waste management experience.
Investigations are now under way to find out the cause of the fire and police are encouraging anyone who may have seen anything to get in touch.
This article originally appeared in Issue 27 of The Skip magazine

Skip truck driver, Steve Potts, had a bizarre celebrity encounter last month after bumping into film director, Quentin Tarantino on the streets of Liverpool.
It may sound like PULP FICTION but Tarantino was in Liverpool to promote his new Grindhouse-inspired film, Death Proof and had got lost wandering around.
Kind-hearted Steve spotted the Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill director looking confused and after a quick double-take drove over to see if he needed any help.
Steve, who works for CCS Skiphire in Kirkby, said of his chance encounter with the movie legend, “ “I didn’t know he was in town so when I drove past I didn’t think for one second that he was the real thing.
“As luck would have it, I was due to pick up a skip from a site opposite the Hope Street Hotel where he was staying during his visit.
“A crowd was gathered outside so I asked someone what was happening and was told that Quentin Tarantino was staying there and I realised it must have been him who I’d seen.
“I loaded the skip onto the truck and drove back the way I came to see if I could spot him”.
Steve eventually spotted Tarantino for a second time by a set of traffic lights still looking slightly lost.
“I yelled to him ‘Wait there Quentin, mate, I’ll come and give you a lift’ and then drove round to get him” Steve added.
He then took a few photos of the director, to show his mates down the pub and chatted to Tarantino about Liverpool.
Steve said: “He was very nice and really chatty. He told me he liked the city and found the people here very friendly”.
Readers! Have you ever had any famous encounters whilst driving your trucks around town or taking orders in the office? Steve’s set the bar pretty high with his Tarantino encounter. If you have a celebrity tale you’d like to tell, get in touch with us at the usual address.
This article originally appeared in Issue 27 of The Skip magazine