Bag-in-box
A bag-in-box IBC is a flexible liner inside a cardboard cradle, usually up to about 950 litres, and it is single use. It is a different product from a caged tote and the desk does not match it, because it is made for one fill.
01How it differs
The inner liner is a plastic bag with a fitting. The outer is a cardboard cradle that holds the shape on a pallet. A fill goes in, the box ships, the liner empties and both are thrown away. Nothing in it is retested or reconditioned, so there is no grade, no retest date and no rebottling.
The capacity is typically up to 950 litres, which is about 250 US gallons, a little under a 275 gallon tote. It stands on the same sort of pallet, so a forklift handles it the same way.
02What the desk does about it
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does the desk buy used bag-in-box? | No. It is single use |
| Does it match a buyer to one? | No; the buyer should ask the filler |
| Can it go to recycling? | The cardboard and the liner follow separate routes |
| What if I want a reusable tote instead? | A caged composite is that tote |
A plant that ships in bag-in-box and wants a reusable tote for a new product can post a NEED ticket. A plant that has surplus bag-in-box has no ticket here.
03Where to go from here
The caged page describes the common reusable tote. The sizes in the sizes-and-types hub give the 275 and 330 specs. The grade ladder shows what happens to a reusable tote at the end of each run, which is the thing a bag-in-box never gets.
04The disposable format
A bag-in-box tote is a disposable IBC format: a flexible inner liner sealed inside a cardboard or rigid crate, usually for single-use applications. It is common for food ingredients and beverage syrups, where a fresh liner means no cleaning and no cross-contamination, and for products that are sold by the load and not returned.
On the used market it is mostly the frame that has value, if it has one, because the liner is discarded after use. A liner that held a food ingredient goes to a landfill or a recycler, and a plastic or steel frame can be reused with a new liner. A cardboard crate is paper recycling once it is flattened.
Plants send bag-in-box empties out in large numbers, and the desk asks for the count and whether the liners have been removed. Because the liner is the contact surface, a bag-in-box frame is often cleaner than any other used format.
?Questions on this page
Is bag-in-box reusable?
No; it is single use.
How big is it?
Typically up to about 950 litres.
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-11-11. Rules change; read the current text before you act on it.