Cage and bottle: recycling a tote in parts

Two parts, two routes

The bottle is high-density polyethylene. The cage is a galvanized steel tube frame on a pallet base. A 330 gallon caged tote is made from HDPE and a galvanized steel cage, and a 275 gallon tote weighs about 135 pounds empty. They are built to come apart, and they usually end their lives in different places.

The bottle: regrind

Regrind is HDPE from a scrapped bottle shredded into flake for new plastic products. A bottle that cannot be reused, because it is cracked, punctured, stained by a product that cannot be washed out, or past its useful life, goes this route. Resin code 2 is molded into the bottom of the bottle for exactly this reason.

The flake is washed and sold on to make new plastic goods. How a tote’s HDPE is recycled follows it through the plant. Totes that held products the washing line cannot handle are the ones a recycler turns away, which is why the last contents come first.

The cage: rebottling or steel

A cage with straight tubes, sound welds and an intact pallet base is worth more than the steel in it. Rebottling puts a new HDPE bottle in a used, inspected cage, which is how a tote with a damaged bottle stays in service. The new bottle is the rebottled tote's only new part.

A bent, broken or heavily corroded cage goes to steel recycling. The check is visual: tubes straight, no cracks at the welds, no rust through. The rebottled grade says what a buyer gets.

What to tell us about a damaged tote

Say which part is damaged: bottle, cage, valve or pallet. A cracked bottle in a good cage is a rebottling candidate. A good bottle in a bent cage is usually not worth a new cage. Both can be on the same damaged-totes request.

A damaged tote is still subject to the same first question. Is it empty, and what did it hold? A tote with a cracked bottle and a heel above the rule is not empty, and it needs a licensed hazardous-waste hauler.

How to check the cage yourself

Walk around the tote slowly. Look for tubes that bow, welds with rust blooms at the joints, and a pallet base that sags. Press a thumb on a tube; it should not give. Photograph anything doubtful and leave the decision to the rebottler.

When the bottle outlives the cage

It happens: a bottle in good condition inside a cage with a bent tube. The bottle may be reconditioned in another cage, and the bent cage goes to steel. The tote does not have to be graded as a whole.