Refineries
Three refinery pads ring the lower Delaware: Trainer in Pennsylvania, Paulsboro in New Jersey and Delaware City in Delaware. Their totes are the metro’s hardest case, and the desk treats every one as a question about the last contents before it is a question about the count.
01The three pads
The Monroe Energy refinery in Trainer is rated at 185,000 barrels a day and makes jet fuel, gasoline, diesel and heating oil. Next to it, Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook terminal stores natural gas liquids. In Paulsboro, PBF runs a refinery and asphalt and lubricant operations. PBF’s Delaware City refinery lists 180,000 barrels a day of nameplate capacity.
A refinery or terminal pad sends out totes of lubricant additives, solvents, catalysts, treating chemicals and sample liquids more often than fuel. The ticket needs to say which.
02What the desk will not do
- It will not route a tote with a petroleum or solvent past to any growing, food or water use.
- It will not accept waste: the desk deals in empties, and a container with product in it is a matter for the site and the state agency.
- It will not decide whether a container is RCRA empty on your behalf. That answer comes from the rule and the last contents; the RCRA guide sets it out.
03Where refinery totes can go
Washers who clean to a stated standard take some. Recyclers take damaged and unclean ones. Chemical users take totes whose last contents match their own product, which is why the SDS is first on the list. The route depends on the state: a tote that crosses from Pennsylvania into New Jersey or Delaware moves into a different agency’s program.
04Fuel and plastic
A plastic tote is no vessel for gasoline. The fuel guide sets out why, and why a tote that once held a fuel stays out of any water or food use.
05Post the ticket
?Questions on this page
Can a refinery tote go to a garden?
No. A petroleum last content rules out any growing or water use.
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-11-11. Rules change; read the current text before you act on it.