A skip is a big bin. Deal with it.

 This controversial submission comes courtesy of Ed from Stoke Newington and highlights a bone of contention upon which bin spotters have been choking for decades: Is a skip, strictly speaking, a bin?

Well yes, of course it is. And to deny that possibility is to deny ourselves a whole world of exciting, large-format contents like the surplus carpet tiles comfortably accommodated by this bright yellow beauty.

As Ed himself wrote: "Saying a skip is not a bin is as stupid as saying a whale is not a fish." While his analogy may at first sound dubious, the fact it was scrawled in big capital letters on the back of an old Red Stripe box kind of makes it true, right?

With a bit of regret, here's a Swedish bin (Happy Birthday, dad)

Coming from a family of keen bin spotters, my dad has sent me multiple requests to contribute to this blog. Since I’m on a somewhat competitive bin spotting level with my nearest family (my bin spotting cousins are fine), his tired requests have fallen on deaf ears. But then came his birthday and as a sole gift from me to him I decided not to let him write a post but allowed for him to contribute one photo to the blog.

The old man, in a bit of OAP middle finger salute, decided to send me a photo of his own new bin. His previous bin one day got a crack in it, which is of course a holy shame for any bin spotter of range, and thus my father decided to buy a new one as soon as his pension came through. Being a man of simple taste he went for a classic green wheelie bin with the blackest of wheels and lid.

As a nice little personal touch, he has put a sticker of his favourite football team on the lid. A non-bin spotter might look upon this as the wrong place to put such a sticker, but for a true bin spotter this is of course a placement of the highest order. I should add that today's entry has a bit of je ne sais quoi about it since my family lives in Sweden, making the bin in the photo Swedish (the label on the front says "Rubbish collection every 14th day" in Swedish).