Industry
Breweries and distilleries: empty IBC totes
The Brewers Association counts 344 craft breweries in Virginia, 132 in Maryland and 11 in the District. Their syrups and flavorings come in totes, and so do the cleaners and sanitizers that keep the lines clean.
- Craft breweries
- VA 344, MD 132, DC 11 (2025)
- Usual last contents
- Syrups, flavorings, cleaners, sanitizers
- Usual grades
- Food-grade history sale, or recycle
- Where in the metro
- Route 1 in Hyattsville, Northern Virginia
Two streams in one building
A brewery or distillery empties two kinds of tote. Food and beverage ingredients leave a tote with a food history, which is the most valuable kind. Cleaning chemicals leave a tote that is a chemical tote forever. If both are stacked together they get mixed up.
Keep them in separate rows and tag each row. Selling food-grade empties lists what to keep.
Where they are
Craft breweries and distilleries have reused old commercial buildings along the Route 1 corridor in Hyattsville. Across Northern Virginia the Brewers Association count is higher than in Maryland. Old buildings often mean a single door; say in the request how the totes can be moved.
Where the food totes go
The totes a brewer keeps with documented food history are the ones a grower wants for stock water, irrigation or rain. The food-grade history page says what paperwork a buyer asks for.
EHS questions
- Did the tote ever hold anything other than food?
- Is the original label still on?
- Which cleaner went into which tote?
- Is the heel an inch or less?
Syrups, flavorings and the tote that carried them
Breweries and distilleries buy a number of liquids in totes: sugar syrups, flavoring concentrates, juices and the cleaning chemicals for their lines. A tote that held a syrup has a food history, and a tote that held a line cleaner has none. The two sit side by side in the same back room.
| Stream | Examples | History | Next life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredient | Syrup, concentrate, juice | Food only | Food-grade history sale |
| Sanitation | Caustic, acid, sanitizer | Chemical | Chemical empties route |
| Water treatment | Treatment chemicals | Chemical | Recycle |
| Unknown | No record | None | Recycle only |
The buyer on the other side
The people who want a tote with a food-only history are growers and farms. They need it for stock water and irrigation. A brewery that keeps the record is helping the person who will fill it next. The record is a label, a supplier name and a date.
The food-grade history page says what a buyer asks to see.
What the counts say
The Brewers Association figures, 344 in Virginia, 132 in Maryland and 11 in the District, show where the sellers are. They are counts of breweries, not of totes, and we make no claim about how many totes any of them empty.
Questions people ask
Does a cleaning chemical tote lose food history?
A tote that held a cleaner never had a food-only history. Keep it apart from your ingredient totes.
Do I need the original label?
It helps a great deal. The label names the product, which is the history.
Can a brewery tote go to a farm?
If its history is food only and the paperwork shows it, a farm can use it for stock water or irrigation.
Keep reading
- Food-grade emptiesBreweries, distilleries and food plants: how to keep a tote's food-grade history intact so it can be sold for food or water use.
- Food-grade historyTotes with a documented food-only history, for stock water, irrigation and food use. What the paperwork shows and what it does not.
- Hyattsville, MDHyattsville’s craft breweries and distilleries reuse old buildings along Route 1. See what their syrup and cleaner totes become.
Sources
- State craft beer statistics (Brewers Association)
- Hyattsville, Maryland (Wikipedia)
- 21 CFR 177.1520, Olefin polymers (Cornell LII)
- How to create and store an emergency water supply (CDC)
Last reviewed . General guidance, not legal advice.