IBC totes in New Castle County, DE: port, refinery and Route 9
New Castle County is Delaware’s share of the metro: Wilmington’s port, the Delaware City refinery and chemical plants on Route 9 between New Castle and Delaware City, and food import and cold storage on the Christina.
01What sits here
The Port of Wilmington is North America’s largest seaport for bananas, with nearly 1.5 million tons of bananas and plantains in 2018. PBF’s Delaware City refinery lists 180,000 barrels a day of nameplate capacity. Croda’s Atlas Point plant near New Castle, on a site in industrial use since 1937, makes surfactants and ethylene glycol.
| ZIP codes | Industries here | Agency to ask about empties |
|---|---|---|
| 19801, 19802, 19804, 19805, 19720, 19706, 19703, 19702, 19711, 19713, 19709, 19701 | petroleum refining, specialty chemicals, port and cold storage, food import, pharmaceutical | Delaware DNREC |
02Who has empties, who needs totes
Chemical and refinery pads put out hazard-first empties, and the port’s food import and cold storage puts out food-ingredient ones. Buyers are across the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Salem and Gloucester counties and in Newark and Bear on the county’s west side.
03Roads, rules and the move
I-95 and I-295 cross the county, with DE 1, US 13, US 40 and DE 9 on the grid, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge crossing to New Jersey. The agency to ask about an empty container is the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, DNREC. It is the one state of the three that has only one desk county. The districts, Wilmington, New Castle and Delaware City, and Newark and Bear, have their own pages.
04Districts in this county
| District | ZIP codes | Industries |
|---|---|---|
| Wilmington and the port | 19801, 19802, 19805, 19806, 19809, 19803 | fresh fruit import, cold storage, chemical companies' headquarters and labs, food distribution |
| New Castle and Delaware City | 19720, 19706, 19733, 19701 | petroleum refining, surfactants, specialty chemicals, logistics |
| Newark and Bear | 19702, 19711, 19713, 19701 | specialty chemicals, food manufacturing, university labs, distribution |
05A ticket from here
- Put one of the ZIP codes from the first table on the ticket.
- Say Delaware, the district and the last contents; the desk records DNREC as the agency.
06North to south in the county
New Castle County stretches from Wilmington and its port through New Castle and Delaware City on Route 9 to Newark and Bear in the west. PBF’s Delaware City refinery lists 180,000 barrels a day, Croda’s Atlas Point plant makes surfactants, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge links the county to Salem County.
07Who buys and who sells here
Delaware’s program is run by DNREC, and a tote that crosses into Pennsylvania or New Jersey moves into that state’s Department of Environmental Protection program. Fruit import, cold storage and distribution around the port supply food-ingredient empties, and farms south of the canal buy water totes.
?Questions on this page
Which agency covers empty totes in Delaware?
DNREC, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Does the desk serve Delaware outside New Castle County?
The desk lists New Castle County only.
→Inside New Castle County, DE
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-11-11. Rules change; read the current text before you act on it.