What we're
learning
in real time.
Long-form pieces, short field notes, regulatory updates, and the occasional rant — all written by the same crew that pulls totes, drives loads, and runs the wash bay. New posts every few weeks.
3 more posts.
Common Cage Failures and When a Cage Is Worth Repairing
Cages bend, crack, and corrode in predictable patterns. Knowing which damage modes are repairable saves real money on the reconditioning line.
Theo Branham · May 14, 2025
Reading a Wash Record: What Those Fields Actually Mean
A wash record is only useful if the buyer knows how to read it. We walk through every field on a standard reconditioning report and what each one tells you about the tote you are about to buy.
Ines Vogel · October 11, 2024
Why "Rinsed" Is Not Food-Grade, and the Wash Records That Matter
A rinsed tote is not the same as a washed tote, and neither is the same as a food-grade reconditioned unit. The differences matter for liability and for the product you put in.
Ines Vogel · May 19, 2024
What we publish, what we don't.
We publish what we've learned in the yard. Not SEO bait, not link-trade filler, not AI-generated "ultimate guides" to topics we don't actually know. Every post here is written by someone whose name is on it — usually one of the three operators, sometimes a guest who knows something we don't.
The frequency is irregular on purpose. Some months see three posts; some months see none because nothing in the yard surprised us. If a post goes up, it's because we thought it would actually help someone. If we're wrong about something we've written, we add a dated correction at the bottom and credit the reader who caught it.
The blog, in a stat row.
Who writes here.
Riley Marchetti
Writes about specs, grades, and the manufacturing side. 8 posts.
Theo Branham
Writes about buying, the freight side, and the things that break in year three. 8 posts.
Priya Sundaresan
Writes about carbon math, recycling chain-of-custody, and the politics of HDPE. Joined the company in 2021. 8 posts.
Asher Tomé
Long-form pieces on industry-wide topics — usually the kind that take a month of research. 6 posts.
Ines Vogel
Field notes on reconditioning and wash-bay process, often co-edited with the operators. 8 posts.
Every post has a name.
No house bylines, no "by the team," no ghost-written guest spots. If a name is on it, that person wrote it.
What each category covers.
Sustainability
Carbon math, recycling endpoints, ESG reporting, the difference between "reused" and "recycled." The longest-running thread on the blog — Priya's beat, but everyone contributes.
Buying Guide
How to read a quote, what to look for in person, when to walk away. Practical pieces for first-time and repeat buyers. Usually Theo or Asher.
Use Cases
Application notes — rainwater, ag spray, brewery, hot tubs, hugelkultur. What works, what doesn't, what we wish someone had told us. Often Riley with photos from the yard.
How-To
Step-by-step pieces: valve swap, gasket selection, cage straightening, painting for UV protection. Short. Practical. Usually Theo.
Reconditioning
What hot-wash actually does. Reading a wash record. Detergent chemistry. Mostly Ines, the occasional guest piece from operators in adjacent industries.
Industry News
Regulatory updates, big-picture sector shifts, the occasional rant about something published elsewhere we disagree with. Rare — we'd rather write evergreen than chase news.
Behind the Scenes
The yard, the trucks, the people. Mistakes we made, decisions we changed. The most-read pieces are almost always in this category.
Filter by category.
The chips at the top of the page filter the article list. This section is the content-only summary of what lives in each.
Wrote about it because.
A post gets written when one of three things happens. One: the same question hits the inbox three or four times in a quarter, and we'd rather link than re-type the answer. Two: we learn something in the wash bay or on a route that contradicts what the industry says. Three: a regulator changes a rule and someone needs to translate the change into something operators can use.
We don't have a content calendar. We don't commission listicles. The bar for "publish" is "would this have saved past-us an hour, a dollar, or a mistake?" If yes, it goes up. If no, it stays in the Notes app where it belongs.