About DC IBC Recycling

What we do

We are the tote recycler for sites that empty totes and have nowhere to keep them: chiller plants, labs, breweries and yards in the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. We start where an EHS lead or facilities manager starts, with whether a used tote is legally empty under 40 CFR 261.7. Then we sort it into reuse, reconditioning or recycling, and the request already says what it last held and what grade it is.

The buy side is smaller. Growers, farms and people catching rain need a clean tote with a food-only history, and we match them to the ones that qualify.

How the work is done

1. You measure the heel, or run the Empty Check.
2. You send a request with the size, the count, the last contents and the SDS if you have it.
3. We read it, say which lane the totes fall into, and say what is needed next.
4. Totes that pass go to reuse, reconditioning or recycling. Totes that do not go to a licensed hauler, and we take no request for them.

The recycling hub lays out the three lanes. The grades say what each result is called.

What we do not say

We do not publish prices, minimum quantities, turnaround times or a street address, because none has been set for this site. We give general guidance on waste rules and send you to your hauler and to DOEE, MDE or Virginia DEQ. We never declare a specific tote non-hazardous. The generator does.

We are careful about where we claim to go. Nobody has confirmed pickups in Loudoun or Prince William counties yet, so the Loudoun page and the Prince William page invite a request and promise nothing.

Why the site looks like a steel rule

The rule down the left edge of every page is the dipstick: a steel rule dropped through the fill cap to read the heel. The inch marks at each section break are the same rule. The dashed rectangle is the pale 48 by 40 inch patch of clean floor a lifted tote leaves behind. The site is built around that one measurement.

Who this is written for

The site is written for three readers. An EHS lead or facilities manager with a few empty totes and a rulebook to follow. A grower or farm manager who wants a clean tote for water. And a person on a dock who has never heard of 40 CFR 261.7 and needs it explained in a paragraph. Each page tries to answer the first question that reader would ask, in the order they would ask it, and to name the document they will need to hand over.

We are not a hauler of hazardous waste and we say so wherever the line matters. Where a tote needs a licensed hauler, the page points there and takes no request.