Reuse ledger, year to date: 41,200 totes diverted from Texas landfills this year. 2,060k lb of HDPE kept in service. 1,772k lb of steel cage recovered. 3,140 tons of CO₂e avoided. 92% of our wash water recycled on site. 68 Texas counties served from one Austin yard. Full methodology at /sustainability/reuse-ledger.

Industry · Oil, Gas & Energy

The most tote-intensive industry in the state.

Between the Permian, the Eagle Ford and the Gulf Coast petrochemical corridor, Texas cycles an enormous number of chemical totes every year. A significant share of them get stacked behind a yard fence and eventually landfilled, which is both a waste of a $600 asset and an entirely avoidable emissions event.

IBC totes staged on a port terminal apron beside stacked shipping containers and gantry cranes

The short answer

Oilfield chemical programs consume totes faster than any other sector in Texas, and most of those totes are still serviceable when they come off location. We buy them back, rebottle where the bottle is compromised, and put the cage and pallet back to work — which is where nearly all the embodied carbon lives.

From the yard

Flatbed trailer loaded with two rows of IBC totes secured with straps, hooked to a blue tractor unit — Twenty on the floor of a 48-foot flatbed. Forty if they're empty.

IBC totes strapped two high inside a box trailer with timber dunnage between the layers — Empties double-stacked and strapped over the cage rail — never over the bottle.

20 units for field pickup

Buy-back minimum

Rebottled, steel pallet, 2" ball valve

Common spec

EPDM, Viton, PTFE-faced

Seal options

Permian, Eagle Ford, Gulf Coast, Panhandle

Regions served

We run buy-back routes into the field. If you have twenty or more empties sitting on a lease or in a chemical yard, we will price them from photos and schedule a pickup rather than making you truck them in.

Applications

What oil, gas & energy actually does with them

Specific uses, with the details that decide whether a tote works well or badly for each one.

Production chemical delivery

Corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, paraffin solvents and biocides all move in totes on skid frames with chemical injection pumps. Cage integrity matters here — a chemical tote riding a lease road takes real punishment.

Methanol & glycol

Methanol is flammable and aggressive to some elastomers; specify Viton or EPDM seals depending on your blend, and use a dedicated, bonded and grounded tote setup. We can supply grounding-lug modified cages.

Frac chemical staging

Totes stage friction reducer, surfactant and crosslinker on the pad. Buying reconditioned rather than new cuts the per-unit cost by more than half on programs that run hundreds of units.

Waste & used-oil collection

Used lube oil and glycol waste collect in dedicated B-grade totes. We take these back through the recycling program and process the HDPE and steel separately.

Solar & battery site coolant

Newer energy sites use totes for glycol coolant make-up and for washing panel arrays. Same tote, entirely different decade of energy.

Recommended

What we'd put on the quote

Starting points. Tell us the specifics and we'll adjust.

Sell Us Your Totes
Field pickup on 20+ units, priced from photos.
Rebottled Totes
New bottle, reconditioned cage — half the cost of new.
DOT & UN Compliance
What the plate has to say before it can ship loaded.

Compliance

What the rules expect

A tote shipping a regulated hazmat must carry a valid UN 31HA1 marking and be within its retest date — 2.5 years for leakproofness, 5 years for full requalification.
SPCC plans generally require secondary containment for oil-service totes.
Empty does not mean clean. Residual chemical governs how the tote can be transported and who can accept it.

Specification

Typical spec sheet

What a oil, gas & energy order usually looks like when it leaves the yard.

Typical Oil, Gas & Energy configuration
Attribute	Typical specification
Buy-back minimum	20 units for field pickup
Common spec	Rebottled, steel pallet, 2" ball valve
Seal options	EPDM, Viton, PTFE-faced
Regions served	Permian, Eagle Ford, Gulf Coast, Panhandle

Where the money goes wrong in this sector

The two failure modes are always the same: paying for documentation you do not need, or assuming documentation exists when it does not. In oil, gas & energy, oilfield chemical programs consume totes faster than any other sector in texas, and most of those totes are still serviceable when they come off location — that sentence is the whole shortcut.

If you are unsure which side of that line your application sits on, describe it in the form. We will tell you the cheaper option when the cheaper option is genuinely adequate, because the alternative — selling you the expensive one every time — is a business model that only works once per customer.

Oil, Gas & Energy questions

+Can I ship a used tote loaded with hazmat?

Only if it holds a valid UN marking and current requalification, and only if the tote was properly reconditioned by a registered facility. Cosmetically clean is not the standard — the paperwork is. Read our compliance guide before you plan a shipment.

+Do you buy totes that held oilfield chemicals?

Most of them, yes. We need to know the prior contents; some chemistries permanently absorb into HDPE and those units go to recycling rather than back into service. Either way we will take them off your yard.

+How far into West Texas do you deliver?

Regularly to Midland and Odessa on consolidated runs. Beyond that we quote per load. Volume moves the math a long way — a full 48-foot flatbed travels a lot cheaper per unit than four totes on a hotshot.

Other sectors

Not quite your industry?

Quick reference

Numbers worth having open in another tab

The figures that come up in almost every conversation, whichever page you arrived on.

275 gallon · 1040 L

48×40×46

Tare: 130 lb
Gross, water: 2,425 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Always in stock

330 gallon · 1250 L

48×40×53

Tare: 160 lb
Gross, water: 2,915 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Always in stock

264 gallon · 1000 L

48×40×46

Tare: 125 lb
Gross, water: 2,325 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Usually in stock

350 gallon · 1325 L

48×40×56

Tare: 175 lb
Gross, water: 3,095 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Order in

Outlet thread

S60x6 — 60 mm coarse buttress. Not 2" NPT.

Grades published

N, R, F, A, B, C, X — applied at the wash bay.

Wash standards

W1 rinse through W4 caustic CIP at 160°F.

UN retest

Leakproofness 2.5 yrs, requalification 5 yrs.

From the yard notes

Longer reading on this

32 articles written by the people who wash, grade, weld and dispatch. No marketing copy in any of them.

All 32 articles

On the yard this week

Warehouse interior with double-stacked IBC totes carrying hazard placards on steel racking — Indoor racking. Chemical-service units stay under cover and stay physically separated.

While you're here

Pulled from the full FAQ, which runs to forty-plus answers across buying, grades, food safety, sizes, selling, compliance, delivery and care.

Read the full FAQ

Where we are: 3505 Montopolis Dr, Austin, TX 78744
Yard hours: Mon–Thu 7:30a–5p · Fri 7:30a–4p · Sat 8a–12p · Sun closed (Central Time)
Email: sales@ibctotestexas.com
Coverage: 68 Texas counties on scheduled routes, from one Austin yard.

+What is your minimum order?

None for yard pickup. For delivery, small orders ride our consolidated routes with a modest freight line, and above about four totes it's usually absorbed into the unit price.

+Can I clean a tote myself?

For non-critical uses, yes — a proper three-stage rinse with agitation and full drain between stages does a lot. For food service, no: you need documented parameters and a caustic clean-in-place, which is what our W4 standard is for.

+Do you ship outside Texas?

Occasionally into Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico on volume orders. Further than that, a yard closer to you usually beats us on freight and we'll say so.

+How often does an IBC need retesting?

Leakproofness testing every 2.5 years and full requalification every 5 years under 49 CFR 180.352. The test date must be marked on the container.

+How much are my empties worth?

It depends mostly on cage condition and prior contents. A straight cage with a rinsed bottle and a readable UN plate carries the best value. A stained bottle in a folded cage is worth its material recovery.

Send a oil, gas & energy request.

Application, volume and destination. You'll have a written price, a grade recommendation and a delivery date the same business day.

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