HDPE saved per tote
That's the resin we don't need to pull from a cracker plant in Texas because you bought a used tote instead of a new one.
Sustainability report Grove City, Ohio · since 2019Used IBC totes,
Used IBC totes,
given a second life.
Sometimes a third.
We buy, recondition, sell, transport and recycle intermediate bulk containers — the 275- and 330-gallon stackable workhorses you've seen in every brewery, soap maker, farm and factory. Every tote we move is one less new plastic cube on a barge from somewhere far away.
The Reclaim Counter — live
19,166,400
used IBC totes returned to circulation since 2019.
366,078,240kg
HDPE saved
735,989,760kg
CO₂e avoided
5,270,760,000gal
Capacity reused
100%
of cages, valves, lids reused
Food-grade reconditioned275 & 330 gallonPickup across OH, IN, KY, WV, PASame-day quotesMauser · Schütz · GreifStainless · poly · cagedBuy-back from $35/unit
Skip the back-and-forth — drop your specs.
Tell us what you need (or what's sitting in your back lot). You'll get a real quote from a human who knows totes, usually the same business day.
What we do
Six things, done end-to-end.
We're a single yard with one job: keep the IBC tote in circulation as long as possible. That sounds simple, but it requires running every part of the loop ourselves — buying, cleaning, certifying, selling, hauling, and finally grinding.
01 — Sales
Inventory you can stand next to before you buy it.
275-gal, 330-gal, food-grade, industrial, rebottled, caged composite, stainless. Walk the yard or have us palletize.
02 — Buy-backGot empties piling up? We pay.
Cash for clean. From $35/unit, more for food-grade and rare cages.
03 — ReconditionTriple-rinse, cage straighten, gasket swap, pressure test, label.
04 — RecycleEnd-of-life bottles get ground and pelletized into new HDPE.
05 — LogisticsLTL, full-truck, palletized, stacked, blanket-wrapped — your call.
06 — FabricationCustom fittings, valves, manifolds, top cuts, IBC-to-vessel conversions.
The lifecycle
One tote can run this loop a dozen times.
An IBC tote leaves a chemical plant once. Then it should keep working for ten or fifteen years before it ever sees a grinder. Here's the route we run it through.
STEP 01
Pickup
We schedule a truck, blanket-wrap the totes, and bring them to the yard. No deposit math.
STEP 02
Inspect
Bottle, cage, pallet, valve, gasket, lid — graded to UN31HA1/Y standards.
STEP 03
Recondition
Hot-water and caustic wash, cage repair, fresh gaskets, pressure & leak test.
STEP 04
Certify
Food-grade re-test or industrial sticker, batch logged with photos.
STEP 05
Resell
Back on a pallet, off to a brewery, soap maker, or biodiesel co-op.
STEP 06
Reclaim
End-of-life HDPE shred, regrind, pellet — into new totes or auto parts.
Our unique fish
Open the gallery →The Second Life Gallery: 80+ things people actually built from our totes.
Aquaponics rigs, mobile sinks, biochar reactors, parade floats, rooftop planters, fuel caches, sap evaporators, kombucha brewing systems, even a cold plunge in someone's garage in Worthington. We curate them.
Real service life
UN-rated for two years from manufacture, but with a recondition cycle, our totes routinely run a decade or more.
Sizing guidePickup radius
OH, IN, KY, WV and PA on a normal week. Further on full loads — we route around our return runs to keep emissions honest.
LogisticsWhy used, always
The greenest tote is the one already on a pallet.
1. Manufacturing emissions are front-loaded.
Roughly 80% of an IBC's lifetime COâ‚‚ is spent before it ever touches your facility. Reusing the bottle skips that bill entirely.
2. The cage and pallet are the hardest part to recycle.
Steel cages and wood/poly pallets get reconditioned dozens of times. We never separate them until end-of-life.
3. Local beats virgin every time.
A reconditioned tote sourced 200 miles away beats a new tote shipped 6,000 miles. Geography is a sustainability lever.
4. End-of-life still matters.
When a bottle finally fails, we shred and pelletize on-site, then sell the regrind to North-American molders. No export to landfill-economies.
Who we work with
From two-person co-ops to county-wide haulers.
We don't have a "core customer." On any given week the yard sees soap-makers, brewers, syrup producers, biodiesel hobbyists, school groundskeepers, painters, chemical distributors, organic farmers and the occasional artist. The thing they have in common is needing a clean tote in the next two weeks and not wanting to pay $300 new for one.
Breweries & cideries
Wort transfer, post-fermentation, syrup. Food-grade rebottled is the usual recommendation. We supply ~30 craft breweries across OH/IN/KY.
Soap & cosmetics makers
Glycerin, surfactants, base oils. Most join our co-op model. Quarterly wash + re-cert keeps the fleet known-clean.
Maple & sap producers
Vacuum-line collection on the raw side, stainless on the concentrate side. Late-winter is our busy season for these.
Liquid fertilizer & ag
Organic-certified inputs, composted-tea distribution, fish emulsion. Mostly food-grade reconditioned.
Industrial coolant / lube
Cutting fluids, coolant, hydraulic. Industrial reconditioned with Viton gasket.
Chemical distributors
Repackaging into 275/330 from drum or bulk. We supply a handful of regional distributors with rotating fleets.
Construction & ready-mix
Site water, dust suppression, mix water for residential pours. Construction-grade inventory.
Schools & municipal
Aquaponics rigs, rainwater collection on muni-buildings, salt brine for snow contractors.
Hobbyists & makers
Backyard rain barrels, biochar reactors, cold plunges, parade floats, art installations. The fab shop loves these jobs.
Geographic coverage
One yard, five-state pickup, anywhere shipping.
Routine pickup radius
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania on weekly routes. Same-day pickup inside the Greater Columbus metro most weeks; 2-5 day window for the rest.
Major metros we cover frequently: Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Pittsburgh, Charleston WV, Erie PA.
Extended on full loads
Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis, Buffalo, Richmond and DC area we'll do for full truckloads or paired buy-back / sales runs. Anything farther is case-by-case but usually possible if the truck math works.
We don't ship to the West Coast or out-of-country. The freight carbon math doesn't make sense.
Walk-in welcome
Yard is open M-F 7:30-5:30 and Saturday 9-1 for walk-in. Bring straps if you're picking up. We'll forklift-load any pallet lot under 36 totes; over that, plan an appointment.
Drop-off welcome
Bringing empties to us is free if the lot is reasonably clean and identifiable. Smaller drop-offs (under 5 totes) are walk-in; larger lots, email ahead so we have a spot in receiving.
How to buy from us
Five steps. No drama.
- 01
Send specs by email or form
Tell us what you need (or what you have to sell). Quantity, prior contents, food-grade or industrial, pickup location.
- 02
We quote the same business day
Real human, real pricing, no AI-drafted runaround. Quote good for 30 days.
- 03
Pick a pickup or delivery date
We schedule against existing routes when possible to keep freight low.
- 04
Inspection & documentation
Every tote photo'd, weighed, batch-tagged. Wash log included for food-grade.
- 05
Pay your way
Net-15 default, ACH, or check on Friday. We invoice; you choose terms.
What customers say
Three customers, in their own words.
“Quoted us same day, picked up same week, paid net-15. The boring parts done right.â€
— Operations manager, mid-sized brewery (Cincinnati)
“They wash totes the way we wash tanks. The wash log is real. We get an audit-ready record every time.â€
— QA lead, soap co-op (Columbus)
“We've cut tote spend about 40% since switching to their reconditioned. Same totes, half the price.â€
— Procurement, contract liquid fertilizer blender (Indianapolis)
We don't publish customer names without explicit permission. The quotes are real; the attributions are accurate to role and city. Customer references available on request.
Common asks
Quick answers.
Are your used totes food-grade?
Some are. We segregate by prior contents and only label "food-grade reconditioned" on totes whose first life held an FDA-approved food contact substance, that pass our 7-step wash, and that re-certify on inspection. Read the full grading rubric on our Safety & Handling page.
What's the price difference between used and new?
A reconditioned 275-gal industrial tote runs about a third of a new one, sometimes less. A rebottled tote (new bottle, reused cage) is the sweet spot for food applications.
Will you actually drive to my facility?
Yes — within OH/IN/KY/WV/PA on a normal route, and further on full loads. Tell us how many totes and where, and we'll route around an existing run.
What can't an IBC tote hold?
Anything aggressive enough to permeate HDPE — concentrated solvents, certain fuels, strong oxidizers — needs stainless. We stock those too. See stainless IBCs.
Can I visit the yard before I buy?
Yes. Walk-ins are welcome during yard hours, and we also host confirmed tours. If you want to inspect inventory before ordering, email us and we'll have the right rows staged for you.