Everything people email us, answered at length.

In the Mid-Atlantic in 2026: roughly $60–$95 for Grade C as-is, $110–$165 for washed Grade B, $165–$225 for Grade A, $225–$300 for food grade, $250–$340 rebottled and $420–$560 new. Truckload quantities land at the low end of each band and yard pickup removes freight entirely.

One container, collected from the yard. For delivery, the minimum depends on the corridor — four units on our twice-weekly runs, six to ten further out. Off-corridor single-unit delivery is possible but the freight rarely makes sense against driving over yourself.

Yes, and ACH, and terms for established accounts. Freight and product are itemised separately on every invoice so you can see what you are paying for.

Used stock: one to three business days. Rebottled: three to seven. New: five to fifteen depending on configuration. Custom fabrication: five to twelve. Will-call from the yard is same-day for anything on the ground.

You get serial-matched photographs with the quote for Grade A and B stock, and you are welcome to come and inspect anything in person during will-call hours. We would rather you looked.

Routinely — homesteaders, gardeners, beekeepers and people building one rainwater system. Will-call works best for single units.

Only when the bottle is FDA-compliant HDPE, the entire prior-contents history is edible, and the container has been washed to a documented procedure. Those three conditions together make a tote food grade. Washing an industrial container does not, because polyethylene absorbs and absorption is not reversible.

For emergency non-potable supply, a food-grade tote with new gasket and valve is appropriate. For genuinely potable use we recommend a single-trip food-grade container that held a water-soluble edible product, plus a sanitising rinse before filling — and for a public water system, new.

We log every container against its original label at intake and print the recorded prior contents on your quote. Where the record is missing or illegible, the container is downgraded to Grade C and sold as non-food, non-potable.

No, and this is the single most important thing on this page. Surfactants, solvents, glycols and agricultural chemicals migrate into the bottle wall during service and leach back out into the next fill. No wash cycle reverses that.

Used containers for infant nutrition, pharmaceutical intermediates or a regulated potable municipal supply. Polyethylene totes for fuel. Any container whose residue is outside our permitted list. In each case we will say why and point you at the right supplier.

275 gallons on a 48 × 40 inch footprint, 46 inches tall, about 130 lb empty and 2,425 lb full of water. The 330 gallon shares the footprint at 53 inches tall.

S60x6 on nearly everything modern — a coarse buttress thread, 60 mm outside diameter. Older and some European units use S100x8 at 100 mm; a reducing bushing bridges the two.

Composite IBCs are generally rated to stack two high loaded, on level ground, with undamaged square cages and centred loads. Never mix sizes in a stack. Empties go four high.

About 6–8 minutes through a fully open 2-inch butterfly valve with a vented lid. Through a 3/4-inch garden hose adapter, closer to 45 minutes. Without venting, every figure drops 40–60%.

A washed Grade B in shaded, static, non-UV service routinely runs five to ten more years. UV is the limiting factor: full Pennsylvania sun ages a bottle three to four times faster than covered storage.

The designation for a composite IBC with a rigid plastic inner receptacle in an outer steel cage, approved for liquids. It encodes type, packing group, test pressure, gross mass, year and approving authority, and carries a service life — typically five years for hazardous transport.

By volume, 48 units of 275 gallons in a 53-foot van stacked two high, or 96 empties four high. By weight, full totes govern: seventeen per van at 2,425 lb each.

Yes, with a liftgate and advance notice. Say so in the work order so freight is quoted correctly the first time.

Our own trucks cover PA, NJ, DE, MD, NY and northern Virginia on scheduled corridors; beyond that we broker and quote the through cost.

Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to noon. We load with a forklift; bring straps, and we will not let an unsafely secured load leave the gate.

Yes — $15 to $85 per unit depending on grade, prior contents, quantity and distance. Twelve or more anywhere inside about 150 miles of Norristown and we will come to you.

We will still take them. They are worth little as product and a great deal as granulation feedstock, and taking them is most of why we can claim zero landfill honestly.

No — that is our job. What helps is draining them, closing the valve, leaving the lid on, keeping the original label attached and storing them under cover. Those four things are worth up to $30 a unit.

Yes, at the same rate we would pay in cash. Most regular customers run it as credit, which makes the truck pay for itself in both directions.