The same eight questions come up on nearly every first purchase. Here they are with the answers we give on the phone, including the ones where the answer is that it does not matter as much as you think.
1. Is a used container safe?
For the right application, yes, and it is a legitimate question rather than a naive one. Every container that leaves us has been leak-tested at 20 kPa against its own serial number and has a documented prior-contents history. Safety comes from the documentation and the test, not from the container being new.
Where a used container is not safe is where the history is unknown. That is why we will not buy or sell undeclared containers at any price.
2. What grade do I need?
Work backwards from the journey, not the budget. Regulated product on a public road needs a valid UN mark with current retests — Grade A or rebottled. Food or potable contact needs a documented food-only history. Water on your own site needs Grade C and nothing more, and buying anything better is money you could spend elsewhere.
3. 275 or 330?
275 unless you have measured. The 330 gives you 20% more capacity for the same footprint and the same freight, which is genuinely free capacity — but only if every clear height between the truck and the final position takes 53 inches, and only if your product is not denser than water.
4. How do I know what was in it?
You ask, and the seller shows you a declaration from the original filler. Everything else — staining, odour at the valve, the gasket material, cloudiness in the wall — is a cross-check on that document, not a substitute for it.
If a seller cannot tell you, do not buy it for anything that matters.
5. Can I put drinking water in it?
Only in a documented food-grade unit, and treat it as storage rather than indefinite supply. In an industrial container, no — not after any amount of scrubbing, because permeated chemistry is in the wall and cannot be rinsed out.
6. What fittings do I need?
This is the one people overthink. The outlet is a 2-inch butterfly on an S60x6 or S70x6 buttress thread, and there is an adapter to every other standard for a few dollars. Photograph the valve and send it — we identify them all day.
The one that does matter is the gasket. EPDM for aqueous, Viton for hydrocarbons and solvents, checked against your actual product rather than its general family.
7. How many can I stack?
Read the stacking test load off the plate, divide by the gross mass of one filled container, subtract one for the unit on the floor, and round down. Then subtract one more if the containers are over three years old or the surface is not dead flat.
A marked value of zero means nothing goes on top of it in transport, full stop.
8. What do I do with them afterwards?
Sell them back. We pay $18–$95 depending on grade and condition, collection is free at eight units, and you get a transfer note listing every serial. Containers put in a skip cost you money twice: the disposal, and the resale value you threw away.
The two you are overthinking
Fittings and cosmetic condition. Adapters cost a few dollars and solve every connection problem there is, and staining has almost no relationship to whether a container is fit for your purpose. Spend the thinking time on grade and on prior contents instead — those are the two that actually decide whether the purchase works.
Teddy Grant is the buyer at IBC Tote Recycling NY in Astoria, Queens. We publish the figures we work from — if you think one of them is wrong, tell us.
