Used IBC totes for sale, matched from plants nearby
Used IBC totes for sale near Philadelphia come from the plants around you. The desk matches your NEED ticket to a seller’s HAVE ticket by size, grade, last contents and retest date, so the tote travels miles, not states.
01How a used-tote match is made
A plant posts what it has: a count of 275s and 330s, the grade of each, what they last held and whether the SDS is on file. You post what you need: the grade, how many and where they go. The desk reads the two together. A match needs the size to agree first. After that the last contents have to suit your job, and the retest date has to give you the working life you want.
Most used totes in the valley come off chemical and food lines, so the last-contents question comes before the price question. A tote that held a food ingredient suits water or food use if the history is documented. A tote that held a hazardous chemical with an SDS can go to another chemical user if it is cleaned and certified, or to a washer or recycler if it is not.
02The grades you will be offered
| Grade | What it is | Usually suits |
|---|---|---|
| Rebottled | New HDPE bottle in a used, certified steel cage | Repeat chemical fills |
| Reconditioned | Used bottle and cage, cleaned, inspected, tested | Chemical or water use |
| Rinsed | Flushed inside; original bottle stays; not food or pharma grade | Water, rain, non-food use |
| Triple-rinsed | Flushed three times after emptying | Buyers who need RCRA-clean empties |
| Used, as-is | Pumped out, not washed, residue inside | Reuse for the same product, or washing |
Dirty and damaged totes are listed too, but they go to washers and recyclers, not to a buyer who needs a tote that works. See the grades hub for all eight.
03What to check on a used tote
- The retest date on the UN plate: a tote for hazmat liquids needs a test every 2.5 years, and the checker does the sums.
- The bottom valve: a 2-inch butterfly valve should turn a quarter turn and seal. Ask what thread it has.
- The cap, the lid and the vent: a missing cap makes a dirty tote.
- The cage: a bent cage can still be rebottled, a broken one is scrap.
- The heel: product left at the bottom turns a used tote into a dirty one.
The valves and fittings guide goes through the valve, thread and cap checks in order.
04Where the totes come from
Empties pile up at refinery and chemical pads in Trainer, Bristol, Deepwater and Delaware City, on pharma campuses in Montgomery County and at food plants in Pureland and Pennsauken. The area pages describe each district. Those plants are named as context, not as the desk’s sellers.
05How a used tote is read before it is offered
A used tote is two parts with two histories. The bottle is high-density polyethylene made in a rotating mold as one piece, and the cage is a galvanized steel tube frame that gives forklift tines a solid surface. Either can be sound while the other is not, which is why a buyer looks at the bottle for scuffs, bulges and weeping seams and at the cage for bent bars and rusted welds, then at the pallet base for split boards.
The plate tells the rest. The marking carries the UN symbol, the design code, a letter for packing group, the month and year of manufacture, the maker, the stacking test load and the maximum gross mass. Composite and rigid plastic totes also carry the month and year of the last leakproofness test and inspection. A used tote with no readable plate is a poor buy for any use that involves a road.
Matching nearby helps a used tote more than any other grade. A truck that runs from Pennsauken to a Gloucester County nursery is a short trip, and a tote that travels short distances spends less time in sun and rain on a trailer. That is why the desk asks for a delivery ZIP before it asks for a budget.
06Post the ticket
?Questions on this page
Are used totes cheaper than new?
The desk publishes no prices. What moves a used tote’s value is grade, retest date, last contents, size and count; the guide on what sets a tote’s price explains each.
Can I use a used tote for drinking water?
No. See the drinking water guide for why a food-grade history is not a grade.