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.
UV Degradation: How Long Do Uncovered Totes Really Last in Missouri?
HDPE under Missouri sun degrades faster than you would think. We pulled three years of field data on uncovered totes and the numbers are striking.
Priya Sundaresan · September 22, 2025
Why HDPE Recycling Math Collapses Below 12-Tote Volumes
Small-volume HDPE recycling looks good on paper and falls apart on the loading dock. We walk through the freight, the grind cost, and the contamination penalty that quietly kill sub-pallet recycling projects.
Asher Tomé · February 17, 2025
The Real CO2 Cost of a New IBC Tote vs a Reused One
New 275-gallon totes carry a much bigger carbon load than most buyers realize. We walk through the resin, the cage, the pallet, and the freight — then compare that to what a reconditioned unit actually costs the atmosphere.
Priya Sundaresan · April 9, 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.