Skips are big business in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom these days. I can remember in my youth, a long time ago the popularity of skip bins with builders for the disposal of building or construction waste generated when building houses and small blocks of flats. The skip bin trucks were seen as very novel, new fangled gear as they drove around town with a stack of skips bins on the back. They would drop off the skips bins to the local builders in the morning and then spend the rest of the day picking up individual skips to take them to the local landfill with the rest of the towns bins. In those days the skip bins heavy construction waste was quite popular at the tip and the construction waste in the bins was used to bury or cover-over the garbage.
So really the skip, skips bins or skip bin is just a name for a large bin originally used for builders waste. As with most novel ideas it was picked up by a broader waste industry and transformed for a wider appeal. Yes the skip bin became a mini-skip for any body who had more rubbish than would fit in their "dust" bin. It probably won't come as much of a surprise that the Americans didn't buy into the lingo. Some one in the US had invented a dumpster which was a similar idea but generally was more box like in shape where as skips bins were that funny trapezoidal shape (side ways on).
As time moved on the the skips bins have gotten bigger and bigger, and along the way as they got bigger they got referred to as bins or big bins. So it is funny that we have bins or wheelie bins at the bottom end of the size scale, then come mini-skips that are these funny shape bins which are now used for any waste you can think of. Then as they grow they become just skips or skip bins or even skips bins when being sought on the internet. Now at the top end of the bin scale you get big bins that go up to 20 cubic metres or more and they are big and squire. These square bins that were once the realm of shops and shop fitters have shrunk and gained popularity. They have become popular because they have low sides and very often have gates that open so you can fill them with a wheel barrow. And once again as the bins have shrunk in size the difference between them and skips bins has blurred. So now when some one is looking to get rid of a load of rubbish they may well be looking of a bin or skip, skips or skip bins or skips bins if it belongs to skip...