Drums to totes, worked out

01The drum arithmetic

A 55 gallon drum holds 55 gallons, so five drums are 275 and six are 330. Pallets of drums run four to a pallet, so five drums are 1.25 pallets and six are 1.5. A tote stands alone on one 48 by 40 inch base of 13.3 square feet.

The floor areas multiply the pallet count by 13.3 square feet. They assume drums sit on standard pallets and stand one high. They are the same sums anyone can run, not a measurement of any plant.

02What changes when you switch

• The fill and draw: one 2-inch bottom valve in place of bungs and pumps.
• The handling: a forklift and the fork pockets in the pallet base, not a drum dolly.
• The paperwork: a tote carries a UN plate, a retest date every 2.5 years and a last-contents record.
• The empties: a tote is a reusable item the desk can place, where an emptied drum is not a request the desk takes.

03The loop

The best case is a loop: you buy rebottled totes for the fill, and when they empty, the same ticket posts them as HAVE. A plant that fills with a food ingredient can send empties to growers with a documented history. A plant that fills with a chemical can send them back to a blender who refills the same product. The ticket form has both sides for this reason.

Not every liquid suits a plastic tote. Class I flammables should never go in a plastic or composite IBC, and a metal IBC is the suitable choice for them. Check the fuel guide before a switch.

04What the desk does not do

The desk does not take 55 gallon drums, plastic or steel, and does not recycle them. A request about drums is declined. A request to move to totes is welcome.

05Replacing drums with totes, in numbers

A 275 gallon tote holds the same liquid as five 55 gallon drums and takes about 1.25 pallets of floor space, while a 330 gallon tote equals six drums and 1.5 pallets. The saving is in handling, because one forklift lift moves what would take five or six drum lifts, and a plant filling from a bottom valve saves the pump-out step.

The same arithmetic applies to what leaves a plant. Drums rinse and recycle on a different route from totes, and a plant that changes from drums to totes will find its empties piling up in a new size. That is the moment to post the first pad of totes, with the last contents and the retest dates in hand.

The tote base footprint of 48 inches by 40 inches matches a standard pallet, so racks and dock plates built for pallets take a tote without change. Height is the one surprise: a 275 stands 42 to 46 inches tall, and rack beams set for drums may need to move.

06Post the ticket

+More in Sell

• 275 gallonThe 48 by 40 by 46 inch tote: footprint, weight and how it loads.
• 330 gallonSame footprint, seven inches taller: specs and where it trades.
• Fuel in totesWhy plastic and composite totes are not for Class I flammables like gasoline, what the fire code allows for diesel, and when a metal IBC fits.
• BuyRebottled, reconditioned, washed and as-is 275 and 330 gallon IBC totes for plants, blenders, farms and gardens around Philadelphia. Post what you need.
• Pad clearingHow the desk takes a pad or warehouse of empty IBC totes off a plant's hands in the Delaware Valley, what must be drained first, and what it won't take.
• What to tell usThe details that let the desk price and place your totes: count by size, grade, last contents, the SDS, rinse state and retest date.
• RecyclingWhere totes that can't be reused go: cages to rebottling, bottles to HDPE recycling, broken units to scrap, for plants across the Delaware Valley.
• Back to Sell