Empty tote recycling in Frederick County, Maryland

Employers and manufacturers

Maryland Commerce lists the county’s major employers for 2023 and 2024: AstraZeneca biotech manufacturing (725), Costco’s wholesale distribution and e-commerce center (640), the Aldi distribution center (596) and STULZ Air Technology Systems, a maker of commercial air conditioners (529).

The county had 226 manufacturing establishments employing 5,642 people in 2024. Its lines of work are wholesale distribution, e-commerce, grocery distribution, HVAC manufacturing and biomanufacturing.

What those sites empty

A biomanufacturer’s totes are graded by what the SDS says. A distribution center’s totes are mostly cleaners. An equipment maker may take fluids in bulk. None of this is a promise about a particular site; it is the reason the form asks what the totes held.

The Frederick page covers the city.

Roads, rail and trucking

Interstates 70 and 270, U.S. 15, U.S. 40 and U.S. 340 serve the county, with CSX and Maryland Midland rail and more than 70 local and long-distance trucking establishments. Frederick sits at the western end of the I-270 corridor that links to the Montgomery County labs.

Trucking is the county’s hidden asset. For a seller, the road side of a tote is rarely the hard part; the paperwork is.

Maryland sets the category

MDE, not a federal chart, sets the generator category, under COMAR 26.13. The three rulebooks explains it. Sites in 21701, 21702 and 21704 and the county’s other postal codes use the same form.

Trucking is the county’s hidden asset

More than 70 local and long-distance trucking establishments operate in the county, according to Maryland Commerce. For a seller that means the road side of a tote is rarely the hard part; the hard part is paperwork. The county’s rail, CSX and Maryland Midland, adds freight options for large movements, though tote work rarely needs them.

Frederick’s manufacturing base, 226 establishments, includes HVAC and biomanufacturing. Those two have the best-documented totes in the county.

Cities under Frederick County, MD

• Frederick, MDFrederick makes HVAC equipment and runs distribution centers off I-70 and I-270. See what its totes may have held and how they are graded.