IBC totes vs. drums
Drums win below roughly 200 gallons per delivery, when there is no forklift, and when the product must be split between many small users. Totes win ab…
7 min read
Knowledge base
Guides written
on the yard
Nine guides covering the things that actually go wrong with intermediate bulk containers — written by people who wash, weld and haul them, and edited by someone who has had to explain the same mistake fifty times.
Order desk
Question not covered here?
We answer questions from people who are not buying anything, in writing, from a yard rather than a call centre. Ask it and it may well become the tenth guide.
Where to start
If you are buying for the first time, read how to buy without getting burned and then the grading scale. If you are comparing containers, start with totes versus drums. If something has gone wrong on site, it is almost certainly covered in cleaning or safe handling.
01Buying well
Buying well
Grades, inspection, pricing and the questions that separate a good used container from an expensive one.
How to buy a used tote
Ask four questions before anything else: what was in it, how many times has it been filled, what was replaced, and can I see photographs. Then inspect…
9 min read
Reconditioned vs. rebottled
Buy reconditioned when your product tolerates prior contents — water, wash-down, waste, construction, ag, ballast. Buy rebottled when the interior mus…
5 min read
02Compliance & provenance
Compliance & provenance
UN marks, food grade claims, documentation and what an auditor will actually ask you for.
Food grade vs. industrial
Both food grade and industrial IBC totes are made from the same FDA-compliant HDPE. The difference is service history: a food grade tote has had exact…
6 min read
UN markings decoded
31HA1 is the UN packaging code for a composite IBC with a rigid plastic inner receptacle and an outer steel frame, intended for liquids and filled or …
8 min read
03Living with a tote
Living with a tote
Cleaning, handling, stacking, static and the mistakes that destroy containers on site.
Cleaning & sanitising
Clean an IBC tote in four escalating stages: triple rinse with warm potable water for water-soluble residues; hot alkaline detergent at around 160 °F …
7 min read
Safe handling & stacking
The four failure modes are: overstacking (never more than two high filled, and never on a warm day with a soft product), forklift strikes (enter from …
6 min read
04Circularity
Circularity
Lifecycle arithmetic, rainwater harvesting and the carbon case for reuse over recycling.
Rainwater harvesting
One inch of rain on 450 square feet of roof fills a 275 gallon tote, allowing for realistic losses. Build the system in this order: leaf screen, first…
10 min read
The life of a tote
A well-managed IBC tote lives roughly 15–20 years across 4–8 service lives. The steel cage typically outlasts three or four bottles. At end of life ab…
8 min read
05Reference
Not a guide, but you will want these
The full FAQ
Every question we get asked, grouped by buying, grades, specs, selling, using and logistics.
43 answers
Glossary
Buttress thread, creep, tare, regrind, RTP, 31HA1 — the vocabulary of the trade, defined plainly.
Definitions
Size chart
Nine capacities with footprints, heights, weights and truckload counts.
Reference
◆On the yard
?Common questions
Questions people actually ask
Who writes these guides?
The people who run the yard: the founder, the yard supervisor who grades intake, the wash line lead and the buy-back desk. Every figure in them comes from containers that passed through 3505 Montopolis Drive rather than from a manufacturer's brochure.
Which guide should I read first if I have never bought a used tote?
Start with how to buy a used IBC tote, which is the nine-point inspection we use ourselves. Follow it with reconditioned versus rebottled to pick a grade, and with food grade versus industrial if the container will touch anything edible.
How current are the prices and figures in these guides?
Prices are reviewed at least twice a year and every guide carries an updated date on the page. Where a figure moves with the market — regrind values, freight rates, container price bands — we date it explicitly in the text rather than leaving it to age quietly.
Can I quote or reuse these guides elsewhere?
Yes, with a link back. Trainers, extension agents and safety officers reuse the stacking, static and freeze material regularly and we would rather that than see the wrong version circulate. Ask first if you want to reproduce a guide in full.
What if a guide does not answer my question?
Send it through the form or to hello@ibctotestx.com. Questions from people who are not buying anything get answered too, and if yours turns out to be common it becomes a new entry on the FAQ page or a new section in the relevant guide.
»Keep reading
Browse the catalogue
Seven product lines, one grading standard.
Build a spec
Configure a container and get a price band.
Run the carbon numbers
Published factors, open to challenge.