Sell your empty IBC totes
Selling empty IBC totes around Philadelphia starts with a ticket that says what the totes held, in what shape they are and how many there are. The desk matches that against buyers on both banks of the Delaware.
01What a seller posts
A sell ticket is a short description of the pad: size, grade, count and last contents. The desk asks for the rest. A plant with a few mixed grades and a plant with a trailer of one grade can both post, and the ticket says which.
- Count by size: how many 275s and how many 330s.
- Grade of each, from rebottled down to damaged.
- Last contents, and the SDS if it held a chemical.
- Rinse state and heel.
- The retest date on the plate, if you can read it.
- The state and ZIP where the totes stand.
02Where each kind of empty goes
| Your empties | Where they usually go | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Rebottled or reconditioned, current date | Chemical blenders and refill buyers | Chemical refills |
| Rinsed or used, known food-safe history | Growers and gardeners who need water totes | Food-grade history |
| Used, as-is, same product | Another user of the same product | Used totes |
| Dirty, out of date or damaged | Washers, rebottlers and recyclers | Recycling |
| A pad with hundreds | Matched in loads by the trailer | Pad clearing |
03What stops a ticket
The desk takes empties, never waste. A tote whose last contents are unknown or acute hazardous goes to a general inquiry first, and nothing moves until the paperwork says it can. A tote with residue above the federal empty-container test is not empty under RCRA and is not the desk’s to take. The RCRA guide quotes the test, and the three-state guide names who regulates it in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
The desk lists no prices, who-pays rules or pickup times. Ask in the ticket and the desk will say what it can.
04Selling across the river
Selling on the Pennsylvania side to a buyer on the Jersey side is normal here. The ticket records which state’s rules apply to the empties and the move. Pages for each county say who has empties there and who needs totes.
05Who posts and what happens next
Sellers on the desk are plants, distributors, cold stores, lab tenants and contractors. A plant with a pad of empties posts by size, grade and last contents; a distributor with mixed empties posts several lots; a contractor clearing a building posts what the building left behind. The desk reads each ticket the same way: last contents first, then rinse, then condition, then count.
A ticket that arrives with a photograph of the plate, the cage and the valve is read faster than one without. The desk replies by saying where the totes can go: a washer, a food or water buyer, a chemical user or a recycler. It does not buy totes, hold stock or set a price. When a match exists, the two sides agree the terms between themselves in writing.
06Common sellers and their lots
| Seller | Typical lot | Likely route |
|---|---|---|
| Food maker | Ingredient empties by the pallet | Growers, gardens, washers |
| Chemical distributor | Mixed empties of many products | Blenders, washers, recyclers |
| Cold store | Packaging totes | Growers after a rinse |
| Laboratory tenant | A few clean, documented totes | Blenders or recycling by policy |
| Contractor | Whatever a building left behind | Sorted by last contents first |
07Post the ticket
?Questions on this page
Who buys used IBC totes near Philadelphia?
Blenders and distributors, growers, gardeners and recyclers, depending on grade and last contents. The desk matches by those two things first.
Do I have to clean the totes first?
Not to post a ticket. The grade, and what the totes held, decide what is needed before a trade.