The Reborn Wall.
When a tote is too tired to refill commercially, it gets a third life. This is our tribute to the customers who took an old IBC home and built something amazing out of it.
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We sell “grade-D upcycle” totes for around $40 each: still watertight, but cosmetically too far gone for commercial refill. They’re the perfect raw material for home and farm projects. Below: a dozen of the most common things our customers have built from them. If you’ve made something cooler, email us a photo — we’ll add it to the wall and ship you a t-shirt.
Rain Barrel
Cut the top open, screen the inlet, plumb the valve to a garden hose. Most popular DIY conversion in our customer photo wall.
Micro-Greenhouse
Cut the top in half, hinge it as a lid, fill the bottom with potting soil and seedlings. The HDPE walls hold heat overnight.
Aquaponics Rig
Pair two totes — one for fish, one for grow-bed gravel — and a small recirculating pump. We’ve seen it grow some seriously good basil.
Raised Garden Bed
Cut the bottle in half horizontally and you’ve got two waist-high planter beds. Drop a pallet between them and you have a full garden in a weekend.
Mobile Wash Station
A tote, a 12V pump, a hose, a foot switch, and a deep sink. Equine vets, food trucks and mobile detailers love them.
Beekeeper Sugar Feeder
A 275-gallon tote of sugar syrup with a slow-flow valve. Apiarists feed an entire bee yard out of one reborn IBC.
Used Cooking Oil Collection
Restaurants pair an IBC with a quick-disconnect to drop spent fryer oil into for biodiesel pickup.
Tiny-House Water Tank
Small builders use 275-gal totes as fresh-water and gray-water tanks beneath off-grid cabins. Two totes = a full plumbing system.
Desert Water Cache
Hikers, ranchers and trail-maintenance groups bury or shade totes along remote trails for emergency water.
Poultry Watering Trough
A 275-gallon tote on a stand, a low-pressure float valve, a row of nipples — automatic chicken waterer for an entire flock.
Hobby Wine Fermenter
Food-grade only. Some of the best amateur wines we’ve tasted came out of a hot-washed reconditioned tote.
Outdoor Solar Shower
Paint the back of the tote black, mount it on a roof, plumb a valve to a showerhead. Free hot water by 2 p.m.
The full upcycle tote spec
An "upcycle" tote (we sometimes call them Grade D, but the friendlier name is "upcycle stock") is a 275 or 330-gallon caged composite IBC that has reached the end of its commercial service life but is still mechanically watertight. They are sold for $40 each, picked up at our yard, no warranty, no documentation, no Birth Certificate. We will load them onto your truck or trailer if you bring one. We do not generally ship upcycle totes because the freight cost would more than triple the price.
What "end of commercial service life" actually means: usually one or more of the following has failed our certification standards but the tote is still useful for non-regulated applications.
- The cage has minor structural issues (a slightly bent corner, a few rusted bolts) that we are not willing to certify but which are fine for static garden use.
- The bottle has cosmetic damage (heavy staining, mild crazing) that fails our visual inspection but does not affect water storage.
- The pallet is on its second cycle and has compression damage around the bolt heads but is still load-bearing for static use.
- The tote previously held a content (often a dyed liquid) that we cannot fully wash out but which would not interact with garden water or compost tea.
- The valve seat has failed and we have not replaced it (you can fit your own $14 replacement, or use a different dispense method).
Buying guide for upcycle projects
Most upcycle projects need different things from a tote than commercial users do. Here is what we recommend looking for based on the project type.
For rain barrels and water catchment
You want the cage straight and the bottle clean. Cosmetic staining is fine. The pallet matters less because most rain barrel installations sit on a concrete block stand. Ask for a "clean bottle, sound cage" upcycle tote.
For raised garden beds
The bottle does not matter at all because you will be cutting it. Look for a sound cage and a sound pallet. We have a small stack of "good cage, mediocre bottle" upcycle totes that are perfect for this and we discount them slightly.
For aquaponics or hydroponics
The bottle matters because the water has to stay clean. Avoid totes with prior contents that included surfactants, fertilizers other than your specific formulation, or any heavy metals. Ask us about prior contents — we usually still know what was in the upcycle stock.
For backyard chicken waterers
Cleanest available bottle. The cage and pallet condition matter for stability but cosmetic issues are fine. Plan to install a low-pressure float valve to convert the tote to gravity-fed dispense.
For hobby fermentation
This is the only upcycle application where you really should pay extra and buy a Grade B reconditioned tote instead. Hobby winemaking, brewing, or cider-making creates an environment where any prior-contents residue or wash residue can spoil your batch. Spend the extra $90.
Why we love this side of the business
The upcycle market is a small fraction of our revenue but it is the part where we get the most interesting customer photos and the most stories. The Reborn Wall above is our small tribute to the people who take a tote that was, by every commercial standard, end-of-life and turn it into something that someone else looks at and says "I never would have thought of that." If you build something, please send us a photo.