About Philly IBC Totes

01Two sides, one ticket

The Delaware Valley makes empty totes faster than almost anywhere on the East Coast. Refinery and chemical pads at Trainer, Delaware City, Bristol and Deepwater, pharma campuses in Montgomery County and food plants in Pureland and Pennsauken all end up with 275 and 330 gallon totes they need gone. A few miles away, on the other bank or in the next county, a blender needs rebottled 330s with a current retest date, a Kennett Square grower needs water totes with a food-grade history, and a rowhouse owner wants one 275 for roof runoff.

Too often the empties ride to a recycler and the buyers order from across the country. The desk exists to close that gap. A seller posts the bottle, the cage, the last contents and the SDS. A buyer posts the grade and the job. The desk reads one against the other and keeps the trade close to home.

02How the desk works

A ticket has a side, a size, a grade, a count and a ZIP. That is enough to start. After that the desk asks the questions that decide a trade, in this order.

1. Size and count: how many 275s, how many 330s, and whether it is a pad, a truckload or a single tote.
2. Last contents and the SDS: what the tote held decides what it can hold next.
3. Rinse state and heel: pumped out, rinsed, triple-rinsed or washed, and how much product is still in the bottom.
4. Retest date: the month and year on the plate, because a tote for hazmat liquids needs a test every 2.5 years.
5. State: which of Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware the empties start in and where they are going.

03What we will not do

We take empties, never waste. A tote whose last contents are unknown or acute hazardous goes to a general inquiry first, and nothing moves until the paperwork says it can. We state no stacking load, because that figure is on the UN plate. We never call a used tote safe for drinking water. We do not list prices, a phone number or a yard address on this site; requests go through the form.

Plants, ports and companies named on the area pages are there for context, so a reader can see what sits around a district. None of them is a customer, seller or partner of the desk unless a ticket says so.

Who is behind the desk, what it charges and how fast it turns a ticket are not published here yet. When they are, they will be on this page.

04Where to start

Sellers start on the sell page and buyers on the buy page. The grade ladder explains the eight conditions a tote can be in, and the guides explain the paperwork: the UN plate, retest dates, RCRA empty and the three states’ rulebooks.

05How the desk works day to day

The desk reads every ticket and replies with a route. A plant that posts a pad of totes learns whether they can go to a washer, a grower, a blender or a recycler; a buyer that posts a need learns which sellers have posted something that fits. Nothing is bought or held by the desk, and no price is quoted.

The three-state setting shapes everything. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware run their own programs for empty containers, through the Department of Environmental Protection in the first two and DNREC in the third. A tote that crosses the Delaware Memorial Bridge or the Commodore Barry Bridge enters a different rulebook, and the ticket records both ends so each can be checked.

• Last contents and retest dates are the price of entry, not a footnote.
• Plants and ports are named only as context for a district.
• Facts carry a source and a review date; claims with no source are left out.

+More in Home

• BuyRebottled, reconditioned, washed and as-is 275 and 330 gallon IBC totes for plants, blenders, farms and gardens around Philadelphia. Post what you need.
• SellPlants, blenders and farms in PA, NJ and DE: post your empty IBC totes with size, count, last contents and SDS, and the desk finds the buyer.
• GradesEight grades of IBC tote, from new and rebottled to dirty and damaged: what each looks like, what it is fit for, and how it is bought and sold.
• GuidesGuides to IBC totes: what an IBC is, RCRA empty, UN plates, retest dates, dimensions, cleaning, last contents, valves and drinking water.
• Back to the home page