Totes for repeat chemical fills

01Why rebottled and reconditioned

A rebottled tote has a brand new HDPE bottle in a used, certified steel cage. The cage carries the UN plate and the bottle starts clean, so a chemical blender gets a fresh inner surface without paying for a new cage. A reconditioned tote keeps a used bottle and cage, cleaned, inspected and tested. It is the grade for a buyer who will refill with the product the tote last held, or who has a cleaning step of their own.

Both grades have been through the test the plate records. The date on the plate is the buyer’s working life: a tote for hazmat liquids needs a leakproofness test every 2.5 years under 49 CFR 180.352, so a plate showing a test last month leaves most of the 30 months to use.

02What a refill buyer should check

03A note on fuels and flammables

Plastic and composite IBCs should never be used for Class I flammable liquids. Listed rigid nonmetallic IBCs are suitable for onsite storage of Class II and Class III combustible liquids only. If your product is a fuel or a solvent, read the fuel guide first, and post a ticket that says what the tote will hold. The desk will ask about it before matching anything.

04How loads are counted

Refill buyers often want more than one tote. Say how many on the ticket, and say whether you want them on one trailer or in several drops. The truckloads page explains how a load is counted and why the number depends on the tote’s height.

05What a refill buyer checks first

A buyer who refills a tote with a chemical cares about the previous product more than the cosmetics. The ISO 13274 standard exists because plastics and the chemicals in them interact, and a bottle that held a solvent can soften or swell in ways that show up only after the next fill. A blender will usually ask for the safety data sheet of the last product and refuse a tote whose past conflicts with the new one.

Valves and fittings matter as much. Many caged totes carry a 2-inch butterfly valve at the bottom, a disc that turns to open, while others carry a ball valve, a quarter-turn outlet. Camlock fittings on lids and outlets let a hose connect quickly, and National Pipe Thread decides what screws on. A buyer who refills from a fixed station should say which outlet the station uses.

Then the date. A refill buyer who ships a tote on a truck needs a plate that is still current under 49 CFR 180.352, so the desk records the retest month on the ticket and lets the buyer filter on it.

06Post the ticket

+More in Buy

• RebottledA new HDPE bottle in a used, certified cage; the grade for repeat chemical fills.
• ReconditionedUsed bottle and cage, cleaned, inspected and tested for reuse.
• Retest date checkerEnter the test date stamped on a tote's plate and see when its 2.5-year leakproofness test and 5-year internal inspection fall due under 49 CFR 180.352.
• Last contents and the SDSWhy a tote's last contents and its safety data sheet decide where it can go next, and how to find them on a used tote.
• Used totesUsed 275 and 330 gallon IBC totes from Delaware Valley plants, by grade and last contents, for buyers in PA, NJ and DE. Post a buy ticket.
• Food-grade historyWhat a food-grade history is, the paperwork that proves it, and how to ask for totes that only ever held food-safe contents.
• TruckloadsHow the desk handles full and part trailer loads of 275 and 330 gallon totes for plants and blenders, and what a load request needs.
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