Sitting on empty IBC totes? We collect them across the Northeast. 275 and 330-gallon caged totes, truckload pickups, fast answers. Tell us what you have.
What we collect
The totes
Standard composite IBCs — the 275-gallon and 330-gallon units with an HDPE inner bottle, steel cage, and pallet base. The workhorse sizes that chemical plants, food processors, and farms actually generate.
The streams
Food-grade streams and chemical streams both have buyers. What matters is that we know the prior contents up front — tell us what was in them and we will match the right buyer. If your operation already thinks in food-grade terms, you already understand how we grade totes.
Condition
Rinsed is better than unrinsed, but talk to us either way. Cage intact, valve present, bottle not crushed — that is the ideal. We have seen worse and still made deals.
The quantity
Truckload quantities get the fastest answers and the best terms. A full trailer of totes is one pickup, one driver, one check. Smaller lots still worth a conversation — it never hurts to ask.
Who sells totes to us
If your operation receives liquids in IBCs, you generate empty totes. The usual suspects: chemical plants and blenders, food processors, car wash chemical users, printers, farms, and water treatment facilities. Most of them stack empties in a corner of the yard until the pile becomes a problem. That pile is money sitting outside.
Disposal is not free either. Landfill fees, hauler charges, the dock space they eat — empties cost you something every month they sit. Selling them flips a cost into revenue and clears the yard in one pickup. That is the whole pitch.
What affects the deal
Five things, in order of importance:
Count
More totes, better terms. A trailer-load is the sweet spot. Give us an honest count — close enough is fine, we will verify at pickup.
Location
We collect across the Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the surrounding states. Short lanes mean quick pickups.
Cage and valve
Intact cage, working valve, pallet base in one piece. Minor damage is normal and expected; crushed or missing parts get priced accordingly.
Rinsed vs. unrinsed
Rinsed totes move faster and price better. Unrinsed still sell — just say so up front so we send the right truck and the right buyer.
How pickup works
Simple. You tell us the count and the location. We line up the truck and a pickup window. One trailer, one pickup, empties gone. You do not need to palletize, wrap, or stage them like outbound freight — just accessible to a dock or a forklift.
Same logic as buying buckets in bulk, in reverse: the pallet and truckload planning that matters for receiving product matters for shipping empties out. And like used buckets, used totes are a real secondary market — the equipment has years of life left in it, and buyers are waiting.
Why sell to us
We have ready buyers for IBC totes. That is the difference between a quote and a shrug. When you contact us, you get an answer fast — not a “we’ll see if anyone wants them.” If you have totes in the Northeast, reach out: call (920) 360-0485, email Alex@thosebucketpeople.com, or use the quote form and select the sell option.