Plastic pail and lid

Claim 1

In combination, a plastic pail and lid comprising a base (4), a wall (3) widening conically from said base towards and upper rim of said pail, said upper rim being constructed to support and seal a lid (2); said wall having two pockets disposed at outer circumferences of the wall below said upper rim and at diametrically opposite points, each pocket being provided with a hole (6) to receive a carrying handle, and said plastic lid; said pockets being part of a cylindrical ring (8, 28) concentrically enclosing said wall (3, 23), said ring being supported by an annular disk-shaped support ring (7, 27) which projects radially from said in proximity of said upper rim, wherein the cylindrical ring, is drawn down arcuately towards the base at two diametrically opposite points of said circumference to permit said lid to be gripped, and wherein said arcuately down-drawn points of the cylindrical ring are bounded on upper arcs (9, 29) and on a lower side (12, 32) by arcs of equal radii (r1, r2) to permit a circular alignment of nested pails without lids; said pail having a degree of conicity in a region of the rim and an interval between said cylindrical ring and pail wall and width of the cylindrical ring which extends downwards from the support ring, to ensure that the cylindrical rings are braced upon each other when stacked or at least approach each other sufficiently through engagement of their arcuate points in a circumferential direction.