Services · Recycling

The floor —
never the
landfill.

Reuse is always the first option. Recycling is the floor. We recycle every tote that genuinely cannot be saved — HDPE shell to granulation, steel cage to scrap, with per-load chain-of-custody documentation.

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What gets recycled

When a tote becomes feedstock.

Structurally unrecoverable shells. Cracked, blown-out, or stress-fractured.
UV-degraded plastic. Years of outdoor storage uncovered.
Hazardous prior contents. Even after cleaning, restricted-list contents go to recycling.
Cosmetically destroyed but technically OK. Some customers won't accept these; we send them on.
Cage failures beyond repair. Bent, welded-broken, or rusted-through.

Documented chain of custody

What your sustainability team gets.

For each load destined for recycling, we provide:

Bill of lading from your dock
Weight ticket at our yard
Final disposition record from the recycling partner (granulator and/or scrap yard)
Optional impact summary: lb HDPE diverted, lb steel recovered

How recycling actually happens

The flow, end to end.

Stage 01

Triage at intake.

Every tote arriving at our yard is graded. Reuse-grade goes to wash bay or storage. Recycle-grade is staged separately.

Stage 02

Cage separation.

Steel cages are pulled from HDPE shells and stacked for scrap haul.

Stage 03

Shell pre-clean.

If the prior contents require, the shell is rinsed before granulation. Cleaning records filed.

Stage 04

Granulation handoff.

Pre-cleaned HDPE shells are flatbedded to our regional plastics processor for granulation into post-industrial pellet stock.

Stage 05

Steel scrap handoff.

Cage steel goes to a local scrap recycler. We get weight tickets, you get a copy on request.

Stage 06

Disposition record.

The full chain of custody is filed against the original load number and sent to you on close-out.

End-of-life decision tree

How we decide reuse vs. recycle.

Condition observed	Decision	Lane
Bottle cracked, leaking	Recycle	HDPE granulation
Bottle UV-brittle (stress-whitening at corners)	Recycle	HDPE granulation
Cage straight, bottle sound, prior food contents	Reuse	Food-grade wash
Cage dented, bottle sound, prior industrial	Reuse	Cage repair → industrial wash
Restricted prior contents	Recycle	Pre-clean → HDPE granulation; chain documented
Cage severely rusted / welded broken	Recycle	Cage to scrap, bottle to granulation
Tote cosmetically destroyed, structurally OK	Reuse, project grade	Fabrication
Unknown prior contents, no documentation	Recycle	Conservative default; cleaned then granulated

HDPE granulation, explained

What happens to the plastic.

The bottle of a 275-gallon composite IBC is roughly 55 lb of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), commonly resin code #2. It's clean, single-resin, and exceptionally well-suited to mechanical recycling.

Our regional processor runs a standard grind-wash-dry-granulate cycle. The pre-cleaned shell goes into a primary shredder, then through a sink-float wash to remove residual labels and contaminants, then through a hot-air dryer, and finally into a granulator that produces ~6mm pellets.

The resulting post-industrial HDPE pellet is sold into pipe extrusion, drainage products, and lower-grade packaging. The molecular weight is preserved well enough that one cycle of granulation doesn't meaningfully degrade end-use performance.

What we don't do is closed-loop bottle-to-bottle. New IBC bottles are typically blow-molded from virgin resin for regulatory reasons. The granulated stock from your end-of-life totes goes into the next generation of HDPE pipe and pallet — still in service, still keeping virgin resin in the ground.

Steel cage recovery

What happens to the cage.

The cage is about 65 lb of welded carbon-steel tube and rebar, galvanized or painted. After separation from the shell at our yard, cages are stacked and flatbedded to a local scrap recycler operating to ISRI-aligned grading.

Cages typically grade out as "P&S" (prepared structural) or "HMS" depending on size and prep. From there it's baled, shredded, and fed to an electric-arc furnace, mostly producing rebar and construction-grade structural steel.

Per ton, recycled steel saves roughly 1.5 t of CO₂e versus virgin steel produced from iron ore. A truckload of 40 cages is about 1.3 t of steel — call it 2 t of CO₂e avoided per truckload, on the steel side alone.

We share weight tickets from the scrap yard on request. Most customers don't ask; the sustainability teams that do, get them.

Pricing & freight

What recycling costs you (often: nothing).

Scenario 1

Bundled with selling

You have 35 reuseable + 12 recycle-only. We pay for the reusable units; the recyclable units ride along free. Most common arrangement.

Scenario 2

Recycle-only, in core

12+ units, recycle-only, within 9-state core. Typically net-zero: scrap value offsets freight. Sometimes a small payout, sometimes a small fee, depending on lane and current scrap pricing.

Scenario 3

Recycle-only, outside core

Quoted per route. Often we'll pair with another job in your corridor; freight cost shows on the quote either way.

Scenario 4

Hazardous prior contents

Additional pre-clean and documentation cost ($18–$45/unit on top of standard). Still routes through us — we just charge for the extra handling.

Scenario 5

Standing pickup program

100+ units / year. Net flat-rate per pickup, scheduled monthly or quarterly. Predictable for your AP team.

Scenario 6

Single-tote recycling

Honestly: deliver it to the yard if you're inside an hour. We can't economically route one tote — but if you're driving past Columbia, drop it off and we'll handle it.

Scope 3 reporting

How this lands on your ESG report.

For customers tracking GHG Protocol Scope 3 emissions — specifically Category 5 (waste generated in operations) and Category 12 (end-of-life treatment of sold products) — diverting IBC totes from landfill into mechanical recycling generates a reportable reduction.

~155 lb

Total material diverted per tote

~110 kg

CO₂e avoided per tote vs landfill + virgin replacement

100%

Documented disposition, no "trust us"

7 yr

Records retention for audit

Methodology references: EPA WARM model for diversion-vs-landfill comparisons, GREET for transportation-phase emissions, ISO 14040/14044 for the underlying LCA framing. We're happy to share the spreadsheet on request.

Partner network

Who actually does the processing.

We don't pretend to operate granulation equipment we don't own. Here's the real network.

Plastics processor: a regional HDPE recycler operating mechanical grind-wash-granulate lines, audited to industry-standard practices. They issue us per-load weight tickets and a quarterly outbound-resin disposition statement we forward summarized.

Scrap yard: two-facility relationship in mid-Missouri, ISRI-aligned grading, electric-arc-furnace destination via consolidator. Weight tickets and grade classification per load.

Pre-clean partner (when needed): for restricted-prior-contents shells that need a wash before granulation, we use a permitted industrial cleaning facility. Wash records flow into our chain-of-custody packet for your records.

We'll name specific partners under NDA for due-diligence requests from your sustainability or procurement team. Otherwise we keep it generic to protect partner relationships.

What we won't accept

Regulated wastes — referrals only.

If the tote contained any of the below, we refer you to a hazmat-certified handler. We do not process these even into recycling:

EPA P-listed acutely hazardous wastes
EPA U-listed wastes in commercial-product form
PCB-bearing liquids or residues
Radiological materials of any class
Class I restricted pesticides
Crude oil, fuel sludge, refinery bottoms
Medical waste, biological waste

The paperwork

Your close-out packet.

Within 21 days of pickup or yard intake, we email a single PDF packet containing:

Signed BOL from origin
Yard intake weight ticket
Per-unit grade-out (reuse vs. recycle)
HDPE granulator weight ticket
Steel scrap weight ticket
Pre-clean records if applicable
Disposition statement on letterhead
Optional: ESG impact summary line-items

Request the sample packet →

Recycling FAQ

What sustainability leads ask.

How do I know the totes weren't just dumped?

Because we provide the chain-of-custody packet with third-party weight tickets from the granulator and scrap yard. If you want to verify, we'll name the partners under NDA so your team can confirm directly.

Can I count this toward zero-waste-to-landfill claims?

Yes for the material we handle. The HDPE goes to mechanical recycling; the steel goes to scrap; the wood pallet goes to mulch or fiber depending on condition. Nothing from our process goes to landfill. We'll document it.

What's the carbon footprint of the recycling process itself?

Mechanical HDPE recycling is roughly 0.5 kg CO₂e per kg of resin processed — versus roughly 2.1 kg for virgin HDPE production. Net per-tote savings on the plastic side alone is roughly 40 kg CO₂e. The steel side is similar in magnitude. We'll show our math.

How long do you retain records?

Seven years. If your auditor asks for proof in 2032 of a 2026 disposition, we can pull it.

Do you issue any kind of recycling certificate?

Yes — a disposition statement on letterhead, included in every close-out packet. It identifies your company, the inbound BOL, the unit count, and the final disposition by stream. Suitable for ESG attachment.

What if my totes held something on your restricted list?

We'll refer you to a licensed hazmat handler. We won't take it — even into recycling — because we're not permitted for those wastes. The referral is free and we'll usually warm-intro you.

Can you handle non-IBC HDPE drums or totes from other formats?

Sometimes, if they're piggybacked on an IBC pickup and quantities are modest. We're not a general drum-recycling shop. Ask in the email and we'll let you know.

Is there a minimum volume for recycling pickup?

Effectively, yes — economically we need enough load to justify the route. In practice the threshold drops to nothing if you're bundling with a sell or recondition pickup. Standalone recycle-only typically wants 12+ units to route efficiently.

Got totes at end of life?

Send a count, a zip, and prior-contents notes.

We'll quote pickup, document the disposition, and email the chain-of-custody packet on close-out. Often it costs you nothing — sometimes it pays a few dollars.

Quote a recycling pickup →