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Joined: Mar 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
So far as I know, the common usage is that a bucket or pail is a container for liquids ...
I have never used "pail" except when reciting Jack and Jill as a child. I would get a bucket of water.
In Scotland "bucket" is also used for what I would call a "bin" for rubbish (never garbage).
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Hi, Jo, it's nice to see you posting. You reminded me of something I've been wondering (not very hard) about. You-all say "rubbish"--does that refer to anything you throw away? Where I live, we sometimes make a distinction: trash is what goes into, say your office or bedroom wastebasket, and garbage refers to uneaten food, empty meat wrappers, etc., that go into your kitchen garbage can. (Some people say garbage pail!) Sometimes we throw trash into the garbage can (which is also what we call the big containers that we haul out front to be picked up), but seldom is "garbage" thrown into a wastebasket.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>You-all say "rubbish"--does that refer to anything you throw away? Yes - it is all rubbish where I come from. Never ever trash or garbage - I hadn't realised that there was a difference in the words. I'd put different kinds of rubbish in the kitchen bin to the office bin but it'd still be rubbish in a bin. The dustbin is the thing that the dustbin men (or more correctly refuse collectors) collect. Ours have been replaced with wheelie bins that are wheeled out and fit onto specially designed lorries http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cewebs/contain.htm
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Where I live, we sometimes make a distinction: trash is what goes into, say your office or bedroom wastebasket, and garbage refers to uneaten food, empty meat wrappers, etc., that go into your kitchen garbage can.
The distinction being, as I understand it, that "garbage" refers to organic matter -- or more specifically to the kind of waste which, if left unattended over time, will develop distinct and unpleasant odors or rotting.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
From a public health standpoint the difference is important. Careless disposal of garbage, meaning food residues , may increase rat numbers.
Incidentally, I object use of "rat population". Some people may be rats, but no rats are people.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Rubrick notes: There is mention in Shakespeare's works of a Toby jug
When I was a lad, we had an Englishman who lived with us for a while who had a collection of these particular dust-collectors (always with a pipe in mouth and a foaming mug of beer in hand). He told me they depicted a lush of English extraction, by the name of Toby Philpot (as in fill th' pot wif ale, I persume). I'd no idea that Toby's illustrious history extended back so far.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
trash or garbage - I hadn't realised that there was a difference in the wordsNor I, and we use the word garbage all the time, to mean everything you throw away, organic or otherwise. So I guess to a western Canadian, the trash/garbage distinction is: garbage is anything you throw away, and if you use the word "trash", we know you're from the US! 
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 322
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 322 |
I won't speak for all of Ontario, but I agree with Bean - garbage is anything I throw away. As a synonym for garbage, trash sounds a little more refined. But, to tell the truth, I tend to interpret it figuratively, as something or someone trashy (eg., 'that book is trash!', "She's My Eurotrash Girl", trailer park trash, etc.)
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Agreed that in many contexts, trash and garbage are used interchangeably.
In some contexts, however, it makes a difference. For example, in the management of an office building or shopping center, differing disposal procedures may be used, if only because it's particularly important to get remove biodegradable "garbage" quickly.
In that context at least, practitioners are careful to use trash and garbage as distinct terms.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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