Used IBC totes in Miami-Dade County

Three economies in one county

The first is cargo: PortMiami, the airport and the warehouse districts nearby. The second is manufacturing and wholesale in cities like Hialeah and Opa-locka. The third is farming: Miami-Dade ranks first in the US for ornamental plants and second in Florida in farm production value, and about 89 percent of its agricultural products ship to markets outside the region.

Our reading: cargo districts are where empty totes appear, farms and nurseries are where rinsed totes may be wanted, and the suburbs in between ask about rain and gardens.

Water, mosquitoes and storms

The county's mosquito guidance is to drain or cover anything that holds standing water, and its rainy season runs roughly from May through October. A tote with a screened cap and a controlled overflow fits that guidance; an open cap does not. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, with its climatological peak on September 10.

Rain in three Miami-Dade cities

At the theoretical 0.62 gallon per square foot of roof per inch of rain, a 1,000 square foot roof sheds roughly 620 gallons for each inch, so the rainiest city on this list is the one where a roof tote fills fastest.

Language

About 75.7 percent of Miami-Dade residents age five and over speak a language other than English at home (ACS 2024 one-year estimate), and 89.5 percent of Hialeah residents reported speaking Spanish at home in 2023.