Chemical and polymer plants

01The plants in the picture

• Bristol Township, Pennsylvania: a chemical site of about 800 acres that has made plastics, resins and emulsion polymers since 1917.
• Deepwater, New Jersey: Chemours’ Chambers Works, roughly 1,450 acres of fluoropolymer and specialty chemical manufacturing on the river.
• New Castle, Delaware: Croda’s Atlas Point plant, on a site in industrial use since 1937, making surfactants and ethylene glycol.

02What chemical totes look like on the ladder

A chemical tote falls somewhere between a food-ingredient empty and a refinery empty, and the SDS decides where. A polymer emulsion that is water-based and mild can be a fair candidate for a blender, while a reactive monomer is a wash-or-recycle case. The ladder of grades ends in three that carry a chemical past; the grades page sets them out.

Totes that carried fluorinated chemistry get the most care. The desk asks for the product name and the SDS and does not guess from the plant’s reputation. A name on a ticket gets a route; an unnamed product gets a question.

03Who takes them

Blenders and chemical distributors buy rebottled and reconditioned totes by the lot and want the retest date on the plate. Other chemical makers can use a tote whose last contents match their own. Anyone else gets the tote only after a wash, and some totes never leave the wash-or-recycle path.

04Paperwork that moves with a tote

• The SDS for the last contents.
• The rinse record, if the plant keeps one.
• The UN plate, which carries the retest and inspection marks.
• The state each end of the move sits in, because three agencies are involved across the river.

05Post the ticket

+More in Industries

• Bristol and Falls TownshipEmulsion polymers, resins, data centers and big logistics sites.
• Deepwater and PennsvilleFluoropolymers and specialty chemicals by the bridge.
• New Castle and Delaware CityRefining, surfactants and chemicals on the river.
• 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.
• RefineriesPads at Trainer, Paulsboro and Delaware City, and what leaves them empty.
• PharmaceuticalMontgomery and Chester County campuses and the tight rules on their totes.
• Food and beveragePureland, Pennsauken and Northeast Philadelphia: ingredient totes and what follows them.
• Cold storagePort-side and Pureland cold stores, and the totes around them.
• Blenders and distributorsThe repeat buyers: rebottled totes, retest dates and truckload counts.
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