Field reports from the yard.
Articles we wrote because someone asked, or because we saw something interesting in the wash bay. Updated when there's something to say.
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275 vs 330 gallon: when each one is the right answer
If your dock door, rack height and forklift were perfectly matched, you'd buy 330s every time. They're not, so let's actually think about it.
Read →How we set our prices (and why we don't haggle)
Most reconditioned-tote pricing is opaque. Ours isn't, by choice.
Read →Food-grade vs industrial: how the line is actually drawn
Calling a tote 'food-grade' isn't a marketing flourish — there's a real, traceable test. Here's what we actually check.
Read →Three jobs we said no to last quarter
Saying no is a real part of running a values-driven yard. These are the recent ones.
Read →Valves and gaskets: the small parts that decide everything
An IBC tote is a $300 piece of equipment with a $14 part that decides whether it lasts five years or five months.
Read →Logistics routing 101 for tote freight
It's part Tetris, part chess, mostly just knowing which rest stops have decent coffee.
Read →Annual numbers, 2024 edition
An honest look at what 2024 actually was at the yard.
Read →The six things pharma customers always ask
Pharma audits force the conversation that small soap makers and breweries should also be having.
Read →Second Life favorites of 2024
Hydroponic strawberries on a Short North rooftop. A maple sap collection rig in Geauga County. The rest.
Read →Stack vs rack: storing IBCs without bending the cage
Cage damage is the #1 reason a usable bottle gets prematurely retired. Almost all of it is preventable.
Read →Five questions to ask before you choose a recondition vendor
Tote reconditioning is mostly unregulated. The vendor differences matter a lot.
Read →The carbon math of a used IBC tote
Cradle-to-gate, a reconditioned tote runs about 12% of the carbon of a new one. Here's the spreadsheet.
Read →Three stories from the fab shop
The fab shop is the most fun part of the yard, and these three jobs are why.
Read →Freight math: why backhauling matters more than you think
Two identical loads can quote at $360 or $820. The difference is what's in the truck on the return leg.
Read →How a pickup actually goes (start to finish)
Demystifying the buy-back pickup. No mystery, no surprise fees, no drama.
Read →What to expect on a yard tour
Tours are free, take about 45 minutes, and end with coffee.
Read →Inside the cage shop: how we save 94% of incoming cages
The bottle gets the spotlight. The cage is what actually keeps the bottle alive.
Read →Rebottling: the most underrated option in the catalog
If we had to pick one product to recommend more, it would be rebottled.
Read →Annual numbers, 2023 edition
The year we got our first audited sustainability report.
Read →Winter storage of IBC totes: don't trust the headspace
HDPE handles freeze-thaw fine. The contents inside the HDPE handle it less fine.
Read →The granulator line: where end-of-life HDPE goes
A tour of the only part of our yard where the bottle is genuinely retired.
Read →What actually counts as end-of-life for an IBC bottle
The line between 'reconditionable' and 'end-of-life' is more interesting than it looks.
Read →A used IBC tote buying checklist
We give our customers this checklist. We'd rather you find a problem on receipt than three weeks later.
Read →Rainwater collection with IBC totes: a practical guide
An IBC tote is the ideal residential rain barrel. Here's how to set one up properly so it doesn't become a mosquito farm.
Read →Why the soap-maker co-op model works (and could work for breweries too)
The mechanics of pooling tote inventory across many small users.
Read →A soap-makers' guide to glycerin in IBC totes
If you've ever opened a glycerin tote in February and watched it pour like roofing tar, this one's for you.
Read →Why our cages are painted (and yours probably should be too)
A cosmetic decision that's actually a functional one.
Read →What an IBC tote actually can't hold
The list is shorter than you'd think, but it's important not to guess.
Read →Five myths about recycling plastic that we hear at trade shows
Plastic recycling is more nuanced than the average news article. Here's what we actually see.
Read →The 'tote shortage' of 2021, in retrospect
If you've forgotten that 2021 was a brutal year for industrial packaging, here's a refresher.
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