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.

Published figures · rolling 12 months

The ledger.
Including the
1% we buried.

Anyone can say they are sustainable. This is what actually moved through one yard in southeast Austin over the last twelve months, where each stream went, and the small percentage we could not save.

Tote wash line under a canopy with a recycling sign reading clean, recondition, reuse, spraying a used IBC tote

The short answer

Over the last rolling twelve months this yard handled approximately 41,200 intermediate bulk containers. About 61% were reused whole, 18% rebottled, 9% cut into second-life builds, 11% materially recovered and roughly 1% landfilled as contaminated. Estimated CO₂e avoided: 3,140 short tons.

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.

41,200

containers handled

Rolling twelve months.

3,140t

CO₂e avoided

EPA WARM v16 basis.

2.06M lb

HDPE kept in service

Reused, not downcycled.

1.77M lb

steel recovered

Cage, frame and steel bases.

Disposition

Where every container went

Percentages of total units handled. The bar widths are the actual shares — including the last one.

Reused whole

61% · 25,132 units

Washed, graded and resold. Full function and full embodied energy retained.

Rebottled

18% · 7,416 units

New bottle in a reconditioned cage. Roughly two thirds of embodied energy retained.

Second-life builds

9% · 3,708 units

Cut into beds, bins, planters and containment. Another decade of use.

Material recovery

11% · 4,532 units

HDPE granulated, steel baled, pallet recovered. Container lost, material kept.

Landfilled

1% · 412 units

Contaminated units we could not lawfully process any other way. We report it rather than hide it.

Material

Streams and destinations

Masses are calculated from unit counts and measured component weights, not estimated.

Material streams, rolling twelve months
Stream	Approx mass	Route	Destination
HDPE — reused in service	1.63M lb	Wash and resale, or rebottled cage reuse	Back into liquid service across Texas
HDPE — granulated	0.60M lb	Cut, washed, granulated	Post-industrial recyclate into moulding and extrusion
Steel — cage and frame	1.77M lb	Reused, reconditioned or baled	Back into service, or scrap steel mill
Composite pallet decking	0.64M lb	Reused or separated into steel and plastic	Service, or separate recovery streams
Wash water	92% recovered	Closed-loop filtration on the pad	Returned to the wash cycle; balance treated and discharged under permit
Valves, lids and hardware	—	Sound units recovered as spares	Spares inventory, or granulated with the bottle stream

What the ledger is for

Three things. It keeps us honest, because a published number is harder to quietly revise than an internal one. It gives customers something they can cite in their own reporting. And it makes the environmental argument concrete rather than atmospheric.

What it is not

It is not audited. It is not a carbon offset. It is not a claim of neutrality — we run diesel trucks and a wash pad. It is a record of how many containers passed through one yard and what happened to each of them, with the calculation method published so you can disagree with it specifically rather than generally.

Rolling twelve months, not calendar

Tote flow is seasonal — ranch water peaks in May, chemical returns peak after year-end inventory, construction runs with the weather. A calendar-year cut-off makes any given quarter look better or worse than the underlying reality, so we publish a rolling twelve-month figure and update it quarterly.

Your own numbers

Any collection can carry a manifest with unit counts, condition tiers, material streams and destinations. Managed fleet customers get cycle reporting as standard. If you want to know what your own containers contributed, ask — it is your data as much as ours.

Check our arithmetic

The factors, sources, and the three assumptions we are least confident about are all published on the methodology page. If a number looks wrong to you, we would genuinely rather hear about it than have it sit here being wrong.

Questions people actually ask

+How often is the ledger updated?

Quarterly, from yard intake and outbound records. We publish the rolling twelve-month figures rather than a calendar year, because a calendar cut-off makes seasonal businesses look better or worse than they are.

+Is the ledger independently audited?

No, and we say so plainly. It is compiled from our own intake, wash and outbound records using published EPA factors. The method is fully documented so you can check the arithmetic, which we think is worth more than a badge nobody reads.

+Can I get a manifest for our own units?

Yes. Any collection can carry a manifest recording unit counts, condition tiers, material streams and destinations. Managed fleet customers receive cycle reporting as standard.

+Why publish this at all?

Because 'we're an eco-friendly company' is a claim anyone can make and nobody can check. A ledger with a documented method is a claim you can argue with — and we would rather be argued with than believed on faith.

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

IBC totes staged on a port terminal apron beside stacked shipping containers and gantry cranes — Gulf Coast staging. The densest source of recoverable totes in North America.

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.

+Can I inspect before buying?

Yes, and we encourage it for first-time buyers. Yard hours, walk the rows, pick your own units. Grading is honest but it's still a judgement — seeing the stock settles every question at once.

+How much does a used IBC tote cost?

Used composite IBCs in Texas run from the low hundreds for rough jobsite stock up to most of the price of a new unit for documented food-grade or rebottled containers. Grade moves the price more than anything else — often by a factor of four across the same size.

+Can I bury a tote?

No. The bottle is not rated for external soil pressure and the cage will not hold the shape. Berm above ground or buy a purpose-built cistern.

+How fast can I get totes?

Austin metro is usually next business day. Most of Central and South Texas is inside 48 hours. Longer hauls ride consolidated routes — San Antonio twice weekly, Houston and DFW weekly, the Permian monthly.

+Cash or credit?

Either. Credit against future purchases is typically worth more per unit, which suits operations that buy and return continuously.

Next quarter's ledger has room in it.

Every batch of empties recovered and every reconditioned order placed shows up in these numbers. Yours included.

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