A caged composite IBC tote will, on average, survive between three and five reconditioning cycles before it reaches a state where the cumulative wear pushes it past the point where we are willing to refill it. The number is highly dependent on what the tote has held, how aggressively it has been handled, and the climate it has lived in. Some totes look beat after one cycle. Some look almost new after four.
The interesting question is how to tell, before the tote actually fails, that it is approaching the end of its working life. There are five early-warning signs I look for.
Sign one: bottle haze that does not respond to washing
A clean HDPE bottle is translucent. A bottle that has been through too many cycles develops a permanent haze from the cumulative effect of caustic exposure, sun, and prior contents. The haze does not come out with another wash. If a tote comes in already hazed, that is the bottle telling you it has lived a long life and the next leg may be its last.
Sign two: cage rust at the welds, not the wear points
Cage scuffs at the high-wear corners are normal — that is just the galvanizing being abraded by the strap that holds the cage to the pallet. What is not normal is rust appearing at the welded joints in the middle of the cage. Rust at a weld means the galvanization has failed at a structural point, and rust at structural points propagates.
Sign three: pallet bolts that have crushed the wood
On a hardwood pallet, the carriage bolts that hold the cage to the pallet are sized for fresh wood. After a few cycles of compression and weather, the wood fibers under the bolt heads start to crush and the bolt sinks in slightly. If you look closely you will see the bolt head is now below the surface of the wood, with a small dish around it. That is a sign that the pallet is at the end of its compression cycle and the next forklift impact may pull the bolts through.
Sign four: a valve that has been replaced more than twice
We track replacement parts on the Birth Certificate for each tote. A tote that has had its valve replaced once is fine — valves wear out. A tote that has had three valves replaced has been through enough cycles that other things are also wearing out, and the next leak you find is more likely to be in the bottle than in another valve.
Sign five: a tracking number that has been written over
Our tracking tags are designed to last the working life of the tote. If a tag has been written over, replaced, or scratched out and rewritten, the tote has either lived through more cycles than the tag was designed for, or it has been through a reconditioner who is not tracking it carefully. Either way, that tote deserves an extra-careful inspection.
What to do when you see the signs
For a tote we are inspecting at intake, the early-warning signs do not necessarily mean rejection. They mean the next life of this tote should be a less demanding one. A tote that was previously food-grade but is now showing two of these signs gets demoted to industrial water. A tote showing three signs gets demoted to upcycle stock. A tote showing four signs gets routed to recycling. A tote showing all five almost never reaches us anymore — those go to recycling at the previous owner before they ever ship.
— Theo Nguyen, IBC Denver