Everything we sell has
already had a life.
Our inventory is ninety-three percent rescued. What's new is there because a handful of applications (usually food or high-purity pharma) require virgin HDPE. Pick a category — every one ends up back in the loop eventually.
Skip the phone tag. Leave a note — we'll reply by email.
Used IBC Totes
275 & 330-gallon caged composite totes, graded A through C. One rinse minimum, full origin disclosure.
- typical lead time: same day
- Grade A, B, or C
Reconditioned Totes
Power-washed, pressure-tested, optionally rebottled. Food-grade available. UN31A current.
- typical lead: 48 hrs
- FDA option
New IBC Totes
Virgin HDPE tanks with fresh cages and steel pallets. Shipped with full bottle-lot paperwork.
- ships from stock
- FDA 21 CFR 177
Accessories & Parts
Ball valves, butterfly valves, lids, gaskets, cages, pallets, camlocks, sight tubes.
- 100+ SKUs
- bin-pickable
- OEM & aftermarket
Upcycled Creations
Rain harvesters, aquaponics tanks, DEF pumping stations, planters, flood barriers, emergency reservoirs.
- custom & stock
- hand-fabricated
- built for the weird
Which category actually fits your job?
A surprising number of buyers end up in the wrong category because nobody laid it out plain. Here's how we route calls once we hear the application. If nothing below matches, the answer is usually Grade B used — start there and back off only if you have a real reason.
| If you're storing… | Go to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rainwater, irrigation, ballast | Used Grade C | No food risk. Save the money for a stand. |
| Biodiesel, soaps, glycol, fertilizer | Used Grade B | Industrial prior — identical to new performance. |
| Maple syrup, honey, cider | Used Grade A | Food prior plus triple-rinse, cert current. |
| Drinking water, sauces, dairy | Reconditioned (rebottled) | Virgin bottle, original cage. FDA letter. |
| Pharma, infant formula, vaccines | New | Factory-sealed mold-to-fill chain-of-custody. |
| DEF, aquaponics, planter, flood kit | Upcycled | Pre-cut, plumbed, labeled, ready to drop in. |
What a tote actually is
An Intermediate Bulk Container is a composite package: a blow-molded HDPE inner bottle seated inside a welded tubular-steel cage, bolted to a pallet (wood, composite, or steel). The shape is nearly cubic for a reason — it fills a truck deck better than any round drum can, roughly 80 totes to a 53-footer versus 198 fifty-five-gallon drums of equivalent volume. Once you understand the three layers independently, everything else about buying and grading makes sense.
Translucent HDPE, 27–32 kg resin, blow-molded in a single piece. Carries the UN31A marking. Wall thickness runs 2.3–3.1 mm at the corners. This is the part that contacts your product, and the part that governs whether a tote is reusable for food.
Welded galvanized steel tube, usually 56 horizontal members on a standard 275. Its job is to resist bulge pressure when the bottle is full — roughly 2,200 lb of liquid pushing outward. Straight cages are cheap to fix; crushed cages get pulled and scrapped.
Four-way entry skid. Wood-composite is standard and fine for indoor use. Steel pallets add about 60 lb at a modest upcharge but survive forklift abuse indefinitely. Plastic pallets show up on food-plant returns and ship well for export.
The brands on the yard
Three manufacturers dominate the North American tote market. We see all of them in the returns line and we stock parts for all of them. Here's the field guide.
- Mauser
- German-origin, now owned by BWAY. Most common brand in our Pittsburgh returns. Bottle wall is slightly thicker than average. Their 2″ buttress fitting is the reference the whole industry copies, which is why Mauser valves drop into almost anything.
- Schütz
- Distinctive double-wrap cage and the Recobulk return program. Their rebottling franchise is aggressive about reclaiming their own hardware, so a Schütz unit we buy is usually younger and the pallet is still good. Bottles carry a clear date code near the top handle.
- Greif (Container Life Cycle)
- Ohio-based, so we see a lot of them off I-76. Their cage geometry is slightly wider; a Greif tote won't always sit flush against a Mauser in a tight pallet row. Good HDPE, honest pricing at scrap, and the valve seat is compatible with the usual 2″ kits.
Questions we answer every week
Yes, and we do this constantly. If the cage is bent beyond straightening but the bottle is clean and dated within the last three years, we rebuild with a fresh cage from stock. Price lands roughly in the middle of used and reconditioned.
Grade A means the bottle is the original, previously held food, and passed our cleaning and UN31A re-cert. Rebottled means you're getting a brand-new virgin HDPE bottle in the old cage and pallet. Rebottled is the only route that returns you an FDA-compliant contact surface with documented resin lot.
UV is the killer. Unshaded HDPE will cloud and embrittle in 6–9 years of full Pittsburgh sun. Under a tarp or overhang, we've seen 15-year tanks still holding pressure. If your plan is outdoor storage, paint the cage and shade the bottle — it's a cheap move that doubles life.
Both. Our box truck runs a Tuesday/Thursday loop covering roughly a 90-mile radius around McKees Rocks — greater Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Morgantown, Cumberland. For quantities over 10, we'll run a dedicated flatbed. Further than that we broker to a regional carrier. Pickup is free and usually same-day.
Yes. Every new tote we sell is eligible for buyback, typically at 35–50% of original depending on condition and contents. Bring the paperwork if you've still got it — it shortens intake.
Only if it's Grade A with a water or food prior, or rebottled. We won't sell you a Grade B or C for drinking water use, even if you ask. The chemistry risk from plasticizer or surfactant residue isn't worth it.
The three-state corridor
McKees Rocks sits inside the I-376 / I-79 / I-70 triangle, which means a tote leaving our dock at 8 a.m. hits most of the Rust Belt before dinner. Our standing freight rates assume that geography; if you're outside it, we'll quote honestly or tell you to find somebody closer.
| Region | Typical lead | Per-tote freight |
|---|---|---|
| Allegheny & neighboring PA counties | Same day | Request Quote |
| Eastern Ohio (Youngstown, Akron, Canton) | 24 hrs | Request Quote |
| Northern WV (Morgantown, Wheeling) | 24 hrs | Request Quote |
| Western NY (Buffalo, Jamestown) | 48 hrs | Request Quote |
| Central PA (Harrisburg, State College) | 48 hrs | Request Quote |
| Everywhere else, lower-48 | 3–7 days | Brokered, quoted live |