Used totes.
Eight lives
each.
One form covers the whole loop. Tell us what you need — or what you want gone — and a grader answers in writing with real availability, grade photographs and a delivered price. Usually same business day.
A reclaim plant
for bulk containers
An intermediate bulk container is the most over-engineered object in the supply chain. Roughly 38 pounds of high-density polyethylene inside 48 pounds of galvanised steel, built to survive a four-foot drop test while holding a ton of liquid — and in most of the country it gets used exactly once.
We exist to break that habit. IBC Tote Market LLC buys empties, grades them honestly, washes what can be washed, rebottles what cannot, fabricates second lives out of the rest, and only sends the genuinely dead to regrind. In 2025 that was 93% reused and 7% recycled, 0% landfilled.
Everything runs out of one plant on Page Industrial Boulevard in St. Louis — two hundred miles from most of the Midwest's chemical and food corridor, which is why our freight is cheap and our turnaround is measured in days.
We buy, recondition, rebottle, fabricate, haul and recycle IBC totes — mostly used, sometimes new. Standard stock is 275 and 330 gallon poly totes in four grades (food, Grade A, technical, rebottled), plus 550 gallon oversize, stainless IBCs, drums, valves, fittings, cage-only units and finished upcycled builds.
Based at 10275 Page Industrial Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63132. No phone line by design — quotes, grades and specs go in writing so they stay on the record. Hours and email are on the Contact Us page.
The ecology is the business model
Reuse is not a marketing layer bolted onto a trading company. It is the only reason the unit economics work — a container that gets eight lives is eight times the margin on one piece of freight.
Reuse beats recycling, by 3×
Closed-loop wash water
Nothing leaves as waste
One tote, many endings
Pick what you want to build. The tool tells you which grade it demands — and refuses the combinations we will not sell.
Rain Catchment Bank
A 275 gallon tote plumbed to a downspout holds roughly a half-inch of runoff from a 900 sq ft roof. Gang three of them with 2" bulkheads and you ride out a dry August without touching municipal water. We fit the leaf screen, first-flush diverter and a shaded sleeve, because UV is what kills HDPE, not water.
Full build guide- Grade
- Technical grade
- Typical build
- 3 × 275 gal, manifolded
- Outlet
- 2" NPT brass + hose bib
- Add-ons
- UV sleeve, leaf trap, overflow
What is on the yard
Stock turns weekly. These are the standing categories — ask for current counts and we will send photographs of the actual pallets.
Stop buying the wrong grade
The most expensive mistake in this trade is paying food-grade money for a technical job — or putting a chemical tote under a drinking-water tap. Two questions settle it.
Food-grade reuse is on the table.
An edible prior content plus a documented wash is the only path we will sell into potable or edible service. You get the prior-contents record, the wash ticket and photographs of the data plate with the unit.
Read the Food Grade specFour tiers, plainly defined
- Food
- Edible prior contents, wash certificate, prior-contents record.
- Grade A
- Clean, pressure-tested, straight cage, sealing valve.
- Technical
- Sound and leak-free; stained, scuffed, cosmetically used.
- Rebottled
- New virgin bladder in a reclaimed, blasted, recoated cage.
Eight lives of one cage
A container does not have a lifespan here; it has a route. Each stop is a decision about whether the form can be saved, and the material only gets destroyed when the answer is finally no.
- Intake & de-label. Prior contents recorded off the data plate before the unit leaves the trailer. No plate, no food-grade path — ever.
- Grade on the pad. Twenty-seven inspection points, by hand. Bottle clarity, cage geometry, valve seat, pallet integrity.
- Wash or divert. Triple-rinse, hot caustic CIP, or straight to rebottling if residue has gone into the wall.
- Pressure test & certify. Air-hold test on every unit that will be sold as Grade A or better.
- Back to service. The best outcome. Same object, new job, almost no embodied energy spent.
- Rebottle. Cage and pallet saved, bladder replaced with virgin HDPE.
- Fabricate. Cut-tops, manifolds, stands, planters, catchment banks.
- Regrind. Only when nothing above is possible. 7% of intake.
Get the dimensions right once
Footprint is nearly always identical. Height, tare and valve thread are what bite.
| Size | Volume | L × W × H | Tare | Gross (water) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 275 gal | 1,000 L | 48 × 40 × 46 in | 125 lb | 2,420 lb | The default. Fits under most dock doors. |
| 330 gal | 1,250 L | 48 × 40 × 53 in | 143 lb | 2,900 lb | Same floor space, 20% more volume. |
| 550 gal | 2,080 L | 62 × 48 × 64 in | 265 lb | 4,860 lb | Oversize. Needs a 6,000 lb forklift. |
| 120 gal | 450 L | 40 × 32 × 39 in | 78 lb | 1,080 lb | Half-height, pallet-jack friendly. |
Questions we get every week
What does a used 275 gallon IBC tote actually cost?
Technical grade starts around $95–$145 depending on cosmetic condition and how many you take. Grade A industrial runs roughly $155–$225. Food grade with a documented prior-contents record and wash certificate sits at $225–$340. Rebottled units — new virgin bladder, reclaimed cage — land between a used Grade A and a new tote, typically $340–$430. Prices move with scrap resin and freight, so every number we publish is a band, and your quote is a real figure against real stock on the yard.
Are used IBC totes safe for drinking water?
Only if the bottle has never held anything but food-grade product, and only with the paperwork to prove it. HDPE absorbs and slowly releases what it has stored; no wash reverses that. If a tote held a surfactant, a solvent or anything unlabelled, we will not sell it into potable service at any price — we will quote you a rebottled unit instead, which has a brand-new bladder in a reclaimed cage.
Do you buy empty totes, and what will you pay?
Yes — nationwide, from single units to standing fleet programs. Pricing depends on grade, prior contents, count and distance from St. Louis. Clean food-grade empties on a steel pallet are the top of the market; unlabelled chemical totes with cracked bottles are worth the steel and the regrind. Twenty or more units in one place usually means we cover the freight.
How is reusing a tote better than recycling it?
Reuse keeps the embodied energy of the whole object. Recycling an IBC recovers the material but destroys the form, then spends energy to shred, wash, pelletise and remould it. One reconditioned tote avoids roughly 71 lb of CO₂e against a new unit; a recycled-and-remoulded one avoids about 23 lb. That is why reconditioning is our default and regrind is our last resort — only about 7% of what we take in ends up there.
Can you ship a single tote, or is there a minimum?
There is no minimum. One tote ships LTL on its own pallet; it is simply expensive per unit. The economics flip hard at about ten units and again at a full truckload of 48 double-stacked empties. Our freight guide shows the crossover maths so you can decide whether to wait and consolidate.
What is the difference between 275 and 330 gallon totes?
Footprint is identical — both sit on a 48 × 40 inch pallet and both take the same 26 floor positions in a 53-foot van. The 330 is simply taller: about 53 inches against 46. If your constraint is floor space, go 330. If it is doorway height, a pump-over clearance, or a tank you have to lift onto a stand, go 275.
Send us a spec, or send us a photograph
We quote from real stock, not a catalogue. A phone snapshot of a data plate is usually enough to tell you the grade, the value and whether we will pay the freight.