 A dumpster awaiting pick-up A dumpster is a large trash receptacle. Many businesses, apartment buildings, offices, and industrial sites will have one or multiple dumpsters to store the waste that they generate. Dumpsters are emptied by front loading garbage trucks. These trucks have large prongs on the front which are aligned and inserted into arms (or slots) on the dumpster. Hydraulics then lift the prongs and the dumpster, eventually flipping the dumpster upside-down and emptying its contents into the truck's hopper (storage compartment). The word dumpster is derived from the Dempster Dumpmaster, the first successful front loading garbage truck. It is a portmanteau of the company's name Dempster, with the word dump. It is a trademark[1] (http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=dumpster) of the Dempster company, but today it is often used as a generic word.
See also: Dumpster diving, skip
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