New IBC totes: a new bottle in a new cage
A new tote is a new bottle in a new cage. It has no last contents, no heel and no history to document, which makes it the one grade whose record starts with the buyer.
01What this grade is
The top of the ladder is a tote that has never held anything. The bottle is high-density polyethylene, molded and fitted to a galvanized steel cage on a pallet base, and the UN plate carries a manufacture date that is only months old. The retest clock starts there.
The desk does not manufacture or stock new totes. It lists the grade because a buyer’s ticket sometimes needs it and because it is the yardstick the other seven grades measure themselves against. A buyer who needs a new tote is told so plainly, and the desk looks for a seller who has surplus new ones.
02What to look at
| Part | What you should see |
|---|---|
| Bottle | Clear or milky with no scuffs, no heel, no smell |
| Cage | Bright galvanizing, no bends, welds intact |
| Plate | A recent manufacture date and no test mark yet |
| Valve and cap | Factory fitted, tight, with a fresh gasket |
03What it fits and what it rules out
| Fits | Rules out |
|---|---|
| A food or beverage product where the buyer wants no past at all | Nothing the plate forbids; a new tote is the safest start for a fuel or a food |
| A repeat chemical fill that changes products | Not a budget choice: it costs the most |
| A first use where the record has to start clean | Nothing further |
04Which way it trades here
Buyers ask for it. Few sellers have it: a plant with a surplus pallet from an over-order is the usual source.
The match is mostly for food and flavour users and for blenders who cannot accept a used bottle.
05What to put on the ticket
- The size and the count
- What it will hold, so the desk can check the product against the bottle
- Whether a used grade would do
06What new means, and what it does not
A new tote is one that has never held product: a fresh rotationally molded polyethylene bottle in a new galvanized steel cage on a pallet base, with a plate marked by its maker. The plate shows the month and year of manufacture, and the first leakproofness test is counted from that date under 49 CFR 180.352, so a new tote starts with a full 30 months on the test clock and 60 on the internal inspection.
New is the one grade where the retest question is easy, and the one where price is least likely to be the reason to pick it. Buyers choose new when the next product is food, a flavor or a pharmaceutical intermediate and the paperwork cannot be allowed to have a gap. A tote that sat in a warehouse for years is still new if it never held product, but the date on the plate keeps counting.
The desk lists new totes only when a seller posts them, usually as surplus from a plant that over-ordered. A buyer who asks for new should say whether a tote close to its first test date is acceptable.
?Questions on this page
Does the desk sell new totes?
The desk matches. It does not hold stock, so a new-tote ticket is matched against a seller who has posted a surplus.
Is a new tote food grade?
It has no past, which is the starting point. A food use still has its own rules.