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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Compliance
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 →The six things pharma customers always ask
Pharma audits force the conversation that small soap makers and breweries should also be having.
Read →Five questions to ask before you choose a recondition vendor
Tote reconditioning is mostly unregulated. The vendor differences matter a lot.
Read →Operations
How we set our prices (and why we don't haggle)
Most reconditioned-tote pricing is opaque. Ours isn't, by choice.
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 →Logistics routing 101 for tote freight
It's part Tetris, part chess, mostly just knowing which rest stops have decent coffee.
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 →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 →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 →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 →Why our cages are painted (and yours probably should be too)
A cosmetic decision that's actually a functional one.
Read →Reuse
Second Life favorites of 2024
Hydroponic strawberries on a Short North rooftop. A maple sap collection rig in Geauga County. The rest.
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 →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 →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 →Sizing
Specs
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 →Rebottling: the most underrated option in the catalog
If we had to pick one product to recommend more, it would be rebottled.
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 →What an IBC tote actually can't hold
The list is shorter than you'd think, but it's important not to guess.
Read →Sustainability
Annual numbers, 2024 edition
An honest look at what 2024 actually was at the yard.
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 →Annual numbers, 2023 edition
The year we got our first audited sustainability report.
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 →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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