Uses for a tote after the plant

01Six uses the desk sees

02The one rule all of them share

Read the last contents. A tote that held a food ingredient is a fair start for water. A tote that held a pesticide, an acid or a fuel is not, whatever the rinse. The CDC advises against storing emergency water in containers that previously held toxic chemicals such as bleach or pesticides. The desk applies the same caution to a garden: a tote that held a toxic chemical does not go to a growing use.

Use is also never drinking. Stored rainwater from a roof is not for drinking, and a used tote is never sold for drinking water. See the drinking water guide for why.

03What a use ticket says

Say what the tote will hold next. The form’s question for this is intended use, and the options run from rainwater and irrigation water to a food product, an industrial chemical, a fuel or oil, dry goods or something else. The desk picks the grade from that answer.

04Weight and a stand

Water weighs 8.34 pounds a gallon. A full 275 gallon tote holds 2,294 pounds of water before the tote itself, which is more than a ton, so a raised stand needs a level, firm base. The guides below use that number.

05Post the ticket

→In Uses

• Rowhouse rainwaterHow much roof runoff a 275 gallon tote catches on a Philadelphia rowhouse, how it fits with Rain Check's free barrels, and which totes are fit for it.
• IrrigationUsing a 275 or 330 gallon tote for drip or gravity irrigation on South Jersey and Chester County farms and gardens: grade, setup and freeze care.
• Garden hose hookupWhich adapter fits a tote's 2-inch butterfly valve, how to reduce it to a garden hose thread, and how much pressure a raised tote gives.
• Spray tanksUsing a tote as a nurse or spray mix tank on farms and nurseries, which last contents are safe to reuse, and how to keep the mix straight.
• AquaponicsCutting a tote into a fish tank and grow bed: which grade to start with, light and algae control, and the cuts to make.
• Farm waterWater storage with 275 and 330 gallon totes on Delaware Valley farms and nurseries: placement, freezing, algae and the grade to buy.

+Nearby on the desk

• Rowhouse rainwaterHow much roof runoff a 275 gallon tote catches on a Philadelphia rowhouse, how it fits with Rain Check's free barrels, and which totes are fit for it.
• Farm waterWater storage with 275 and 330 gallon totes on Delaware Valley farms and nurseries: placement, freezing, algae and the grade to buy.
• Food-grade historyWhat a food-grade history is, the paperwork that proves it, and how to ask for totes that only ever held food-safe contents.
• Drinking waterWhy a used IBC tote is not sold for drinking water, what a food-grade history does and doesn't prove, and safer options for stored water.
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