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.

Resource library

Everything we know,
written down.

Fourteen years of intake, washing, grading and arguing with people about what 'food grade' means, turned into pages you can read without talking to anybody.

Outdoor tote yard beside a metal warehouse with the Texas flag flying overhead

The short answer

Start with the buying guide if you're purchasing used containers for the first time, grades if you're comparing quotes, food grade safety if anything edible is involved, and DOT compliance if the tote will move on a public road with regulated product in it.

From the yard

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.

Wide view of a warehouse hall filled with reconditioned IBC totes on polished concrete — Covered inventory. What you see on the rack is what goes on your truck.

Guides

Nine reference pages

GDE-01

IBC Tote Buying Guide

How to buy used containers without getting burned: the questions to ask, the five failure points to inspect, and the three claims that mean nothing.

Start here · 12 min read

GDE-02

Tote Grades Explained

What N, R, F, A, B, C and X guarantee, what each one is genuinely good for, and where the money gets wasted.

Seven codes, side by side

GDE-03

Cleaning & Reconditioning

What a wash can and cannot remove, how to clean a tote properly on your own site, and when to stop and rebottle instead.

Including doing it yourself

GDE-04

Rainwater Harvesting Guide

Sizing against dry spells rather than annual rainfall, first-flush diverters, freeze protection, and the Texas rules that actually apply.

Texas-specific

GDE-05

Food Grade Safety

What makes a used container defensibly food grade, why allergens are the risk people underestimate, and what documentation an inspector expects.

FSMA · 21 CFR 177.1520

GDE-06

DOT & UN Compliance

What a UN marking proves, retest intervals, who carries the legal responsibility, and why 'UN-rated used totes' is often a meaningless phrase.

49 CFR 178 & 180

GDE-07

IBC Totes vs. Drums

Five drums or one tote: handling, storage density, cost per gallon, spill risk and the cases where drums genuinely still win.

Comparison

GDE-08

Frequently Asked Questions

Buying, grades, food safety, sizes, selling, compliance, delivery and care — every question we get more than twice.

40+ answers, eight topics

GDE-09

Glossary of Tote Terms

Buttress, camlock, CIP, permeation, tare, requalification. The vocabulary, defined plainly.

30 definitions

Deeper in

Pages that live inside other pages

These never appear in the main menu. They're the detailed references we link to from within the guides — checklists, standards and decoders.

Where to start, by situation

You've never bought a used tote before

Read the buying guide, then grades explained. Between them you will know more than most people placing orders, and you will not overpay for documentation you do not need.

You're comparing quotes from several yards

Go straight to grades and wash standards. Ask every seller to name a grade and a wash standard. The ones who cannot are the answer.

Anything edible is involved

Food grade safety, and pay particular attention to the allergen section. Then decide between documented F-grade and rebottled.

The tote will move on a public road with regulated product

DOT and UN compliance, then how to read a UN plate. Do not improvise this one.

You want to harvest rainwater

The rainwater guide, which is written for Texas conditions specifically — sizing against dry spells, freeze protection, and the state rules that apply.

Elsewhere

Reference sections

Questions people actually ask

+Which of these guides should I read first?

If you have never bought a used container before, start with the buying guide — it covers the four questions to ask any seller and the five failure points to inspect. If you already know what you want and are only comparing offers, read the grades page instead, because almost every pricing dispute we see is really a disagreement about grade.

+Are these guides written for Texas specifically?

Mostly, yes. The rainwater harvesting guide is sized against Texas dry spells rather than annual rainfall, the storage pages assume Texas heat and the occasional hard freeze, and the compliance pages reference TCEQ alongside the federal rules. The mechanical content — threads, valves, cage inspection, wash chemistry — applies anywhere.

+Do I need to read any of this to get a quote?

No. You can send a quote request with nothing more than a rough volume and what you plan to put in the container, and we will tell you what grade fits. The guides exist because roughly half the requests we receive ask for the wrong thing, and twenty minutes of reading usually saves more than it costs.

+Who writes these pages?

The people who do the work. Grading and intake content comes from our yard operations lead, wash and water content from the person who runs the wash pad, compliance from the person who schedules requalification, and freight from dispatch. Nothing here is outsourced copy and nothing is written from a spec sheet alone.

+How often is the reference material updated?

Specifications, dimensions and wash standards are corrected whenever the underlying practice changes on the yard. Regulatory pages are reviewed when the rules move. If you find something that contradicts what you have been told by us in writing, email us — the written quote governs, and we will fix the page.

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

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.

+How do I stop algae growing in a water tote?

Block the light. Paint the bottle, wrap it, shade it or buy a pre-wrapped opaque unit. Algae needs sunlight far more than it needs nutrients.

+Who is responsible for compliance?

You are, as the offeror of the shipment. We supply containers and documentation; the determination that a given container is suitable for a given regulated material is yours. We'll give you every fact we have to make it.

+Will you take totes that held chemicals?

Most of them, with the prior contents in writing. Some chemistries permanently permeate HDPE; those units go to material recovery rather than back into service, but we'll still take them off your yard.

+What thread is the outlet?

S60x6 on almost every composite IBC — 60 mm coarse buttress. It is not 2 inch NPT and NPT fittings will not screw directly into it. One moulded adapter converts it to NPT, camlock or garden hose.

+Can I put drinking water in a used tote?

For genuine potable storage, use a rebottled unit — the bottle is new, so prior contents are not a question. Documented food-grade stock is acceptable for short-term non-potable-rated use. General Grade A stock is not.

Read first, buy second.

Half the people who send us a quote request are asking for the wrong thing. Twenty minutes on these pages usually saves more than it costs.

Get a quote Straight to the FAQ

Everything we know,written down.

Question not answered here?