The manual we wish
every buyer had.
After 17 years of answering the same questions, we wrote them all down. Dimensions, grades, safety standards, quirks, and the occasional long-form rant about HDPE. All here, all free.
Skip the phone tag. Leave a note — we'll reply by email.
Size & Spec Guide
Every dimension, weight, and volume in one table. Tap to download a PDF.
Open →Grading System
How A, B, and C are decided — and how to know which grade you need.
Open →FAQ
Short answers to the questions we get every single week.
Open →Articles
Long-form field notes from the yard. Updated monthly.
Open →Start here if you're new.
Most first-time buyers have one of four jobs in mind. We've pulled the pages that matter for each, in order.
- Size & Spec Guide — Pick a gallon count that fits your pad and overhead clearance.
- Grading System — Grade A vs C — Potable requires A; rainwater reuses a C.
- Rainwater Harvesting article — Parts list and mosquito tricks.
- Size & Spec Guide — valves and gaskets — Match the valve thread to your transfer hose.
- Grading System — Grade B — Most industrial jobs need B, not A.
- FAQ — hazardous content rules — Confirm UN31A before you commit.
- Food-Grade Rules article — FDA 21 CFR 177.1520 in plain English.
- Grading — Rebottled units — For cider, syrup, brewery wort: always rebottled.
- FAQ — triple-rinse protocol — What our 180 °F sanitize cycle actually does.
- IBC Safety Handbook — Forklift posture, stack limits, grounding.
- Size & Spec Guide — pallets & stacking — Know your cage static rating.
- Anatomy of a Tote — What each piece does and how it fails.
Glossary of words we use.
The IBC world has a lot of jargon and not all of it is consistent between yards. Here's the short definition for the terms you'll see repeatedly on this site.
- IBC
- Intermediate Bulk Container. Industrial packaging between 110 and 793 gallons. In North America, “tote” usually refers to the same thing.
- Caged composite
- The standard 275/330-gal IBC: HDPE inner bottle, steel cage, pallet base. What most people mean when they say “tote.”
- UN31A
- The UN packaging code for a caged composite liquid IBC. A current UN31A marking means the tank has passed its most recent hydrostatic pressure test.
- Rebottle
- Replacing the HDPE inner bottle in an existing cage and pallet. The result is effectively new packaging with a reused steel frame.
- Triple-rinse
- Three consecutive fresh-water flushes of the inner bottle. Our version uses 180 °F water and a rotating spray ball.
- Grade A/B/C
- Our internal sorting of cleaned tanks by cage, valve, residue, and HDPE clarity. See the grading system page for the thresholds.
- DOT-e
- U.S. Department of Transportation equivalent packaging. Marking you'll see near the UN code on any hazmat-rated tank.
- Bunding
- The secondary containment around a wash bay or storage area. Ours is rated to hold 110% of the largest single tank on site.
- BOL
- Bill of Lading. The document that travels with every shipped tank, signed at pickup and delivery.
- Chain of custody
- The documented path a material takes from origin to end use. We keep one for every tank and every pellet load.
- Ledger
- Our internal and public record of every tank we've touched. Includes intake date, grade, outbound destination, and related paperwork.
- Granulator
- A mill that shreds clean HDPE into pellet-sized flake for re-melt. Ours is a 3-inch, 40-HP rig we purchased in 2017.
Regulations, summarized.
The legal landscape for used IBC totes touches four federal agencies and the Pennsylvania DEP. Here's the five-minute version — for the full text, email us the citation and we'll send the PDF.
Defines the design, materials, and markings for composite IBCs carrying liquids. Relevant to every tank on our yard that will recross a state line in service.
Hydrostatic pressure retest every 2.5 years for caged composites in hazmat service; leakproofness test annually. We run these on our own rig and keep the stamps current.
Governs the food-contact suitability of HDPE. All our rebottled Grade A units use bottles manufactured to this specification; we keep the resin certificates on file.
Defines when an emptied container is no longer regulated as a hazardous waste. We only intake tanks that clear this threshold and can prove it.
Pennsylvania's residual-waste framework for containers. Our PAR-000443 transporter license authorizes intra-state moves of used totes between industrial generators and reconditioners.
The diamond placard on arriving tanks. We photograph every one at intake and archive it against the ledger entry.