IBC totes for cleaning and chemical blenders

A trade built on repeat fills

A blender buys raw materials in bulk, mixes them to a recipe and ships the product in smaller containers or in totes to the customer. A tote of finished product goes out, and an empty one returns or is replaced. Over a year, a mid-sized blender cycles hundreds of totes.

Because the product is regulated, the tote must be too. Under 49 CFR 180.352, a tote used to ship hazardous materials must be tested and inspected on a schedule, and the plate shows the marks.

What blenders look for

• A current retest mark on the plate.
• A bottle with a known history, ideally new.
• A cage free of rust at the welds.
• A valve that seals without a weep.
• A gasket that is soft and fresh.
• A supplier who can document all of it.

Rebottled totes meet most of these. A new bottle in a used, certified cage starts a product with no carryover, and the plate shows the cage's inspection.

What happens to empties

A blender's empties come back from customers or are generated in house. The usual routes are return to supplier, rinse and reuse for the same product, wash and sell, or recycle. Each depends on the product. A tote of floor cleaner can go to a nursery after a rinse; a tote of solvent cannot.

In South Florida

Blenders and packagers sell to hotels, restaurants, marinas, hospitals and pool companies, and their tote cycle follows their customers' seasons.

Lot tracking and carryover

Blenders who run several products through the same tote must prevent carryover, the traces of one product that contaminate the next. The surest way is to dedicate a tote to a product and to use rebottled stock when a tote changes lines. Mark the cage with the product code, the lot and the date of the last fill. When a tote returns, inspect it, check the plate and the retest, and decide whether it can be refilled, washed or retired. A rubric that fits on a card pinned beside the bay turns this into a thirty-second decision for each returning tote.