IBC tote recycling for DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia

The three lanes

The lane is not a choice we make for you. It follows from the last contents, the bottle, the cage and the dates on the plate. The eight grades describe each outcome, and the Empty Check is where the sorting starts.

Empty first

A tote cannot enter any lane until it is empty. Under 40 CFR 261.7, a tote over 119 gallons is empty when it has been pumped out and one inch of residue or 0.3% of capacity by weight is left, and an acute hazardous waste tote is empty only after triple rinsing. A tote that is not empty is hazardous waste, and it needs a licensed hauler, not us.

The generator, the site that emptied the tote, makes and documents that call. The RCRA empty guide gives the rule and the arithmetic for both sizes.

How to ask for a pickup

The pickup request asks for the number of totes, the size, the ZIP code and how to reach you. In the message box, say what the totes last held and how they can be loaded: a dock, a forklift, a pallet jack or ground level. The SDS for the last product is the document that moves a request along.

For a run of totes, clearing a dock or yard explains counting by grade and staging. For a cracked bottle or a bent cage, damaged totes says what still has a next life.

Where this applies

The metro the site writes about is the District, Montgomery, Prince George's and Frederick counties in Maryland, and Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Warren in Virginia. The area pages describe what each one empties and which agency it answers to. For Loudoun and Prince William, tell us about the site and we will say whether a pickup reaches it.

Sizes and weights that shape a run

A 275 gallon tote measures 48 by 40 by 46 inches and weighs about 135 pounds empty. A 330 gallon tote has the same 48 by 40 inch footprint and stands 53 inches tall. Because the footprints match, the two sizes take the same floor space on a truck, but the 330 is seven inches taller, so say how many of each you have.

The arithmetic is simple. Five empty 275 gallon totes weigh about 675 pounds in all, and that weight is mostly galvanized steel and HDPE, the two materials the recycling lane recovers.

Why the dates on the plate matter only to one lane

Under 49 CFR 180.352, an IBC for liquids needs a leakproofness test and inspection every 2.5 years. Those dates decide whether a tote can go back into service. They do not stop a bottle from becoming regrind or a cage from becoming steel, so an out-of-date tote is still a recycling candidate. Reading the plate shows where each date is.

What the three lanes leave behind

Each lane leaves something the next one needs. Reuse leaves a tote with a record of its contents. Reconditioning and rebottling leave a cage that has been checked and a bottle that is new or cleaned. Recycling leaves regrind and steel. A tote never skips the first step: it is emptied under the federal rule before any lane applies.

That order is why the first question on a pickup request is not the price or the date but what the tote held and how much of it is left.

Questions about what happens to the parts

The bottle is high-density polyethylene, the same family of plastic used for milk jugs and detergent bottles, and when it is ground up the result is called regrind. The cage is galvanized steel tubing welded into a lattice, and a scrap yard values it by weight. Wooden pallets under a tote may be repaired or discarded separately. Metal fittings and the valve are sorted out at the same stage.

Which parts travel together depends on the lane. In reuse and reconditioning, the bottle and cage stay together as one tote. In rebottling they are split, with a new bottle going into the old cage. In recycling they are split and each part goes to its own market.

A note on volumes

We do not set a minimum number of totes for a request, and we do not promise a schedule. A single tote is a legitimate request, and so is a full yard. The difference is in the planning, not the acceptance: a large yard is described by a tally, a single tote by a photograph. Either way, the first step is the same measurement of the heel and the same record of the last contents.

Choosing which lane to ask about

A site that wants to know where its totes can go should describe them honestly and let the lane follow. Asking for recycling only when a tote is sound wastes a tote that could be reused, and asking for reuse when the bottle is cracked wastes everyone’s time.

In this section

• Request a pickupRequest pickup of empty IBC totes in the DC metro. Tell us size, grade, last contents and truck access, and send the SDS if you have it.
• Clearing a dock or yardHow to get a run of emptied totes off a loading dock, chiller yard or lab with little room: count, grade, stage and request removal.
• Damaged totesA cracked bottle or bent cage is not the end. How a damaged tote is rebottled, or its HDPE regrind and galvanized steel are recycled.