Washing &
recondition.
Tell us the residue, not just the tote. Syrup and vegetable oil are different cycles and different prices.
Four stages: ambient pre-rinse, hot caustic recirculation at 160–180 °F with 1.5–2.5% NaOH, potable rinse to neutral pH, sanitising rinse. Cycle time, peak temperature, caustic concentration and final pH are logged per unit and printed on the certificate. Under 9 gallons of make-up water per tote. $28–$65 per unit depending on residue class.
Why a closed-loop wash matters ecologically
A conventional tote wash is a hose, a pressure wand and a drain. It uses forty-plus gallons of fresh water per container and sends every drop of it, plus the residue, into a sewer. Multiply by a few hundred units a week and the water footprint of “reconditioning” starts to eat the carbon saving you were trying to bank.
Ours recirculates. The caustic charge runs through a three-stage separator that pulls solids and floats off oils, then a carbon polish, then back to the tank. Make-up water is only what evaporates and what leaves in the final potable rinse. Spent caustic is neutralised and discharged under permit at the end of its life, with the separated oil and solid fraction going to energy recovery.
Net effect: about 74 million gallons of process water saved to date against a single-pass line — see impact numbers for how that is calculated.
The four stages, properly
- Ambient pre-rinse. Bulk residue displaced and captured before any heat is applied. Heating a tote full of syrup residue just bakes it on.
- Hot caustic recirculation. 160–180 °F, 1.5–2.5% sodium hydroxide, rotating spray head through the 6-inch opening, 12–40 minutes by residue class. This is the stage that does the work.
- Potable rinse to neutral. Fresh water until the discharge pH reads neutral on a calibrated meter. Measured, not assumed.
- Sanitising rinse and drain-dry. Final rinse, inverted drain, warm air dwell. Then air-hold pressure test and certificate print.
What reconditioning adds on top of washing
Washing cleans the inside. Reconditioning makes the whole unit serviceable again: new gasket, valve inspected or replaced, cap replaced, cage straightened on a jig if the lower horizontals are out of true, pallet repaired or swapped, data plate photographed and transcribed, then an air-hold test. That full package is what turns an incoming empty into Grade A stock.
Cycle by residue class
| Residue | Cycle & price |
|---|---|
| Syrup, juice, liquid sugar | Single pass · $28 |
| Brine, vinegar, salt solution | Single pass · $28 |
| Glycol, antifreeze | Single pass · $32 |
| Detergent, surfactant | Extended · $38 |
| Vegetable / olive oil | Long caustic + surfactant · $58 |
| Latex paint, adhesive | Mechanical + caustic · $65 |
| Cured resin, polyurethane | Not washable → rebottle |
| Unknown / unlabelled | Not washable to any grade |
On the certificate
- Serial number and prior contents
- Cycle ID, date and operator
- Peak temperature, °F
- Caustic concentration, % NaOH
- Caustic dwell time, minutes
- Final rinse discharge pH
- Air-hold test result and duration
This is the document a food-safety auditor asks for. “It was washed” is not.
Water, per tote
- Industry single-pass
- 40+ gallons fresh
- Our make-up water
- Under 9 gallons
- Caustic charge life
- Dozens of units per charge
- Separated fraction
- Energy recovery
Washing questions
Can you wash a tote back to food grade?
You cannot wash provenance into a container. If the bottle previously held a non-edible product, no cycle makes it food grade — the certification depends on prior contents, not on cleanliness. What we can do is wash an edible-history tote to a documented food-grade standard, and wash a non-food tote to a genuinely clean industrial standard. If you need a food-grade vessel from a non-food bottle, the answer is rebottling.
How much water does a wash cycle use?
Under 9 gallons of make-up water per tote, against an industry typical of 40 or more. The difference is recirculation: our caustic stage runs on a closed loop through a three-stage separator and a carbon polish, so the same caustic charge washes dozens of units before it is dumped and neutralised. The cost of that loop is the only reason washing is cheap enough to be a default rather than a luxury.
What residues are hardest?
Vegetable and olive oil, by a wide margin — they saponify slowly and they soak into the polymer. Next are latex paints and adhesives, which can be mechanically removed but leave a film. Cured resins and polyurethanes are effectively permanent and those bottles go to rebottling or regrind. Syrups, juices, brines, glycols and most detergents come out in a single pass.
Can I send you my own totes to wash?
Yes, and it is a large part of what the line does. Freight in, wash, freight out — five to eight business days for a Midwest round trip. If you run a seasonal peak, a standing programme reserves line capacity so you are not queuing behind our own inventory in April.
Every residue class, with the parameters
| Residue | % NaOH | Peak temp | Dwell | Additions | Price | Food-grade eligible after? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corn syrup, HFCS, liquid sugar | 1.5% | 160 °F | 12 – 15 min | — | $28 | Yes, if the plate is legible |
| Fruit juice and concentrate | 1.5% | 165 °F | 15 min | — | $28 | Yes — staining is permanent and cosmetic |
| Brine, vinegar, salt solution | 1.5% | 160 °F | 12 min | — | $28 | Yes |
| Glycerin | 1.5% | 160 °F | 15 min | — | $30 | Yes |
| Glycol, antifreeze | 1.8% | 165 °F | 15 min | — | $32 | No — never an edible prior content |
| Detergent, surfactant | 2.0% | 170 °F | 25 min | Extra rinse stages | $38 | No, at any price |
| Vegetable and olive oil | 2.0 – 2.5% | 165 – 180 °F | 30 – 40 min | Surfactant assist | $58 | Yes, if edible oil and plate legible |
| Mineral and cutting oil | 2.5% | 180 °F | 40 min | Surfactant assist | $58 | No |
| Latex paint, adhesive | 2.5% | 180 °F | 40 min | Mechanical pre-removal | $65 | No — a ghost film remains |
| Cured resin, polyurethane, epoxy | — | — | — | — | Not washable | No — rebottle or regrind |
| Unknown or unlabelled | Any | Any | Any | — | Washed, but technical grade forever | No |
Why temperature beats concentration
Oil does not dissolve — it saponifies. You are reacting a triglyceride with a strong alkali to produce soap and glycerol, both of which are soluble. A chemical reaction has a rate, and that rate is far more sensitive to temperature than to alkali concentration across the range a wash line can work in.
| Solution temperature | Relative rate | Practical cycle time |
|---|---|---|
| Ambient, ≈70 °F | 1× | Does not complete |
| 120 °F | 3× | Over 3 hours, incomplete |
| 150 °F | 7× | ≈70 minutes |
| 165 °F | 10× | ≈40 minutes |
| 180 °F | 13× | ≈30 minutes |
This is also why a domestic attempt at oil removal fails. You can buy caustic and a long brush; you cannot easily recirculate 180 °F liquid through a 275 gallon vessel for forty minutes, and that is the active ingredient.
Where the water goes, and the instrument that watches it
A conventional tote wash is a hose, a pressure wand and a drain: forty-plus gallons of fresh water per container, every drop of it plus the residue into a sewer. Multiply by a few hundred units a week and the water footprint starts to eat the carbon saving you were banking.
The three separator stages
- Solids stage. Settling and screening that drops out particulates — label fragments, grit, sediment, product solids. Sized deliberately coarse, because over-fine screening here loads the coalescer with material that should have settled.
- Coalescing stage. Media that encourages small oil droplets to merge into large ones so they float and can be skimmed. This is the stage that blinds over time, and the one with a differential pressure gauge across it for exactly that reason.
- Carbon polish. Removes dissolved organics that would otherwise accumulate and foul the charge.
With all three working, a single caustic charge washes dozens of units and make-up water is only what evaporates and what leaves in the final potable rinse — under 9 gallons per tote.
The instrument that actually matters
Make-up water per tote, metered weekly and written on a whiteboard the operators walk past. It is a single number, it integrates every failure mode in the loop, and it is the only thing that caught a five-week separator degradation in which our figure drifted from 9 to 23 gallons while every individual gauge stayed in range and every unit still passed.
- Industry single-pass typical
- 40+ gallons fresh per tote
- Our make-up water, normal
- Under 9 gallons per tote
- Caustic charge life
- Dozens of units per charge
- Separated oil fraction
- Used-oil reclaimer
- Separated solids
- Dewatered, energy recovery
- Spent caustic
- Neutralised, discharged under permit
- Cumulative process water saved
- ≈74 million gallons
What reconditioning adds on top of washing
Washing cleans the inside. Reconditioning makes the whole unit serviceable again — and it is what turns an incoming empty into Grade A stock.
| Operation | Cost to us | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| New EPDM gasket | $3 | Mandatory on everything sold Grade A or above |
| Valve inspected, cleaned, seat-checked | Labour | Catches the most common in-service complaint |
| Valve replaced | $8 – $34 | Where the seat is scored or hardened |
| New fill cap | $8 – $14 | Vented where the prior content or storage calls for it |
| Cage jig-straightening | Labour | Promotes a technical unit toward Grade A |
| Pallet base swap, reclaimed steel | $28 plus labour | Frequently the single step that promotes technical to Grade A |
| Data plate photographed and transcribed | Labour | The basis of every grade above technical |
| Air-hold pressure test, 3 psi timed | Rig time | The defining Grade A criterion |
| UV sleeve fitted | $38 | Customer option; roughly triples outdoor service life |
Send us your own fleet
- Round trip, Midwest
- 5 – 8 business days door to door
- Wash line time itself
- Under 48 hours
- Oil residues
- Add 2 – 3 days
- Minimum
- 12 units
- Seasonal peak
- Standing programmes reserve line capacity in advance
- Certificate
- Issued per unit, with full cycle data
- Freight
- Quoted; frequently combinable with a delivery
Detailed questions
Can you wash a tote back to food grade?
You cannot wash provenance into a container. If the bottle previously held a non-edible product, no cycle makes it food grade — the certification depends on prior contents, not cleanliness. What we can do is wash an edible-history tote to a documented food-grade standard, and wash a non-food tote to a genuinely clean industrial standard.
What exactly is on the certificate?
Serial number and prior contents, cycle ID, date and operator, peak temperature in °F, caustic concentration as percent NaOH, caustic dwell time in minutes, final rinse discharge pH on a calibrated meter, and the air-hold test result with its duration. Parameters rather than assertions, because parameters are falsifiable against our logs.
How often is the pH meter calibrated?
Daily against buffer standards, with the calibration logged. It is a question auditors ask and a fair one — a final-rinse pH figure from an uncalibrated meter is decoration.
Can you wash stainless as well as poly?
Stainless gets a different treatment: borescope, dye-penetrant on suspect welds, re-passivation with citric or nitric to restore the chromium oxide layer, all gaskets and seals replaced, and any CIP spray ball flow-tested. Passivation at $280 is the step most shops skip and the reason their tanks pit at the welds.
What if a unit will not come clean?
We tell you and we do not charge for a second attempt on the same unit. Then it goes to rebottling if the cage is sound, or to fabrication if the bottle will still hold something at atmospheric pressure. About 8% of second-look recoveries are units the first cycle did not clear.
Do you recover product from the residue?
No — the volumes are too small and the material is too mixed. What we do recover is the oil fraction, which goes to a used-oil reclaimer for energy recovery rather than down a drain. If you have a genuine product-recovery requirement, that is a different service from a different kind of company.
Is there a residue you refuse outright?
Cured resin, polyurethane and epoxy, because they are chemically bonded to the wall and no cycle touches them. Also anything listed hazardous, unrinsed pesticide containers, and units holding more than a trace heel. We say so before a truck is booked rather than after.
How much water does a wash actually use, including the rinse?
Under 9 gallons of make-up water per tote across the whole four-stage cycle, because the caustic stage recirculates. The rinse stages account for most of that 9 gallons; the caustic stage accounts for almost none, because the same charge is used over and over.
Can I watch a cycle run?
Yes, during yard hours. It is wet, hot and loud in the middle of the building and genuinely interesting. Closed-toe boots and long trousers, and we will ask you to stay behind the line at the caustic stage — 180 °F sodium hydroxide causes deep burns and does not hurt immediately.
Send us your own fleet to wash
Five to eight business days door to door for a Midwest round trip. Standing programmes reserve line capacity ahead of seasonal peaks.