Wilmington and the port: totes in and out of Delaware’s city
Wilmington and the port is fresh-fruit import, cold storage, chemical companies’ headquarters and labs, and food distribution. The Port of Wilmington is North America’s largest seaport for bananas.
01What sits here
The district’s ZIPs are 19801, 19802, 19805, 19806, 19809 and 19803. The port handled nearly 1.5 million tons of bananas and plantains in 2018. Fresh-fruit import, cold storage, chemical-company labs and food distribution are the industries.
| ZIP codes | Industries here | Agency to ask about empties |
|---|---|---|
| 19801, 19802, 19805, 19806, 19809, 19803 | fresh fruit import, cold storage, chemical companies' headquarters and labs, food distribution | Delaware DNREC |
02Who has empties, who needs totes
Cold storage and food distribution put out food-ingredient and rinse empties, the grades with the longest buyer lists. Chemical-company labs put out few, very clean totes with records. Buyers are close: farms in the rest of New Castle County, and across the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Salem and Gloucester counties.
03Roads, rules and the move
I-95 crosses the district, with DE 141, US 13 and the Christina River’s port roads serving trucks. The agency to ask is Delaware’s DNREC. A ticket that crosses into Pennsylvania or New Jersey enters a different agency’s program, and the ticket records both ends.
04Next door
| Place | ZIP codes | Industries |
|---|---|---|
| Newark and Bear | 19702, 19711, 19713, 19701 | specialty chemicals, food manufacturing, university labs, distribution |
05On the ground
Wilmington’s port sits on the Christina and Delaware rivers, and the I-95 corridor passes through the city centre. A seller at the port should say which terminal gate and the hours a trucker may enter. A buyer in the suburbs, such as a garden or a nursery, will want the retest date and a lift gate truck for a single tote.
06Weather, season and timing
The port’s ship calls drive truck traffic along Terminal Avenue and Christiana Avenue in waves, and a driver caught in a surge can wait an hour. Sellers should ask the terminal for a quiet window. A city buyer, such as a school garden, should pick a weekday morning for a van pickup, when the roads are lightest.
07A ticket from here
- Put one of the ZIP codes from the first table on the ticket.
- Say Delaware, the building type and the last contents.
08Port and city
The Port of Wilmington is North America’s largest seaport for bananas, with nearly 1.5 million tons of bananas and plantains in 2018. The Christina River and the Delaware meet at the port, and I-95 and DE 141 carry its trucks past the city centre.
?Questions on this page
Which agency covers Delaware?
DNREC.
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-11-11. Rules change; read the current text before you act on it.