Services · S-02
Washing &
reconditioning.
Short answer
- Toll washing available — you keep ownership
- Food line physically separated, hot water only
- Interior camera inspection on every unit
- Wash water treated on site under permit
Quote a wash job
Chemistry selection
Three lines, and why one is never enough
A single-chemistry wash bay is the reason some reconditioned totes still smell of their last job. Residue chemistry decides the wash, and there is no universal detergent.
| Line | Conditions | Right for | Wrong for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caustic | 2 – 4% NaOH, 70 – 80 °C, 12 min cycle | Ag chemicals, soaps, surfactants, alkaline-compatible residues, latex | Anything food-contact; acids; aluminium-sensitive residues |
| Hot water | Potable water, 82 °C, 9 min cycle | Sugars, syrups, starches, glycols, food residues, brines | Resins, adhesives, cured coatings |
| Solvent | Recovered solvent, ambient, extraction cycle | Resins, adhesives, inks, coatings, uncured polymers | Food lines (permanently), anything water-miscible |
The food line is physically separated — its own bay, lances, drain and staff rotation. Nothing that has carried caustic or solvent is ever used on it, because that contamination is not reversible. Food-grade grading →
The line
Nine stations, in order
- 01
Intake and prior-contents verification
No unit enters the line without an identified prior fill. Unidentifiable residue is diverted to recycling, not guessed at.
- 02
Residue drain and manifest
Heel drained, measured and manifested. Hazmat heels go to permitted disposal with documentation; everything else goes to our treatment step.
- 03
Strip wetted parts
Valve, lid and gaskets removed. Washing around a fitted valve leaves a residue ring behind the disc — a classic shortcut and a classic complaint.
- 04
Primary wash
Rotating lance on the matched chemistry at the temperature and dwell time for that residue class. Cycle logged against the serial.
- 05
Triple rinse
Three successive potable flushes, each at least 10% of container volume, with conductivity checked on the final rinse.
- 06
Interior camera inspection
Camera down the 6-inch lid. Looking for residue rings, scuffing, haze, crazing and stress cracks at the bottom radius.
- 07
Cage and base work
Uprights pressed straight, welds checked, base repaired or swapped. A washed bottle in a bent cage is not a reconditioned tote.
- 08
New wetted parts and leak test
New gasket in the specified compound, new or refurbished valve, then a 3 psi air leakproofness test with a pass/fail record.
- 09
Label, certify, stage
Grade label, wash certificate, test record and — where applicable — UN re-marking under our reconditioner code.
Toll washing
Keep your own assets, use our line
Common for food plants with a captive fleet, chemical blenders running a return loop, and anyone whose containers are asset-tagged into an ERP system.
Title never changes hands
Your serials go out, the same serials come back. We do not substitute units, and the wash certificate references your asset number alongside ours.
Audit evidence, not assurance
Chemistry, temperature, cycle time, rinse conductivity, test result and operator, per unit. This is what a food-safety auditor asks for, and it is easier to hand over than to explain.
Round-trip freight included
We can collect and return on the same lane, which is usually cheaper than two one-way bookings and means one set of reusable dunnage.
Repairs quoted separately
If a unit needs a rebottle or a base swap we quote it rather than doing it and invoicing afterwards. You decide whether that unit is worth keeping.
Questions
Washing questions
Will you wash totes I already own?
Yes — that is toll washing. Title never changes hands. Send them in, we run the chemistry appropriate to the prior contents, test them, and return them with a wash certificate. Food plants rotating a captive fleet are our biggest toll-wash customers.
How do you choose the wash chemistry?
From the prior-contents record, not from whichever line has capacity. Caustic for alkaline-compatible residues, ag chemicals and soaps; hot water for sugars, starches, food residues and glycols; solvent for resins, adhesives, coatings and inks. Running the wrong chemistry either fails to clean or chemically attacks the residue into something worse.
What is the difference between a rinse and a reconditioning?
A rinse is three flushes of water and a visual check. Reconditioning adds matched chemistry, interior camera inspection, cage straightening, a new gasket and a 3 psi leakproofness test with a written record. The test is the dividing line, and it is the part suppliers skip when they are competing on price.
Can you remove odour?
Often, not always. Surface odour comes out with the right chemistry. Odour from permeation — product absorbed into the HDPE wall — does not come out at all, because there is nothing on the surface left to remove. We will tell you which one you have after the first unit.
What happens to your wash water?
It goes through an on-site interceptor and treatment step before discharge under permit. Caustic liquor is recovered and reused across cycles until its titration drops below spec. Wash-water treatment is about a third of the energy in our 88 kg CO₂e per-unit reconditioning figure.
Capacity and scheduling
What the lines can actually do
Published because a toll-wash customer planning a fleet rotation needs to know whether their 300 units fit into their maintenance window.
| Line | Units per shift | Cycle | Typical queue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caustic | ~34 | 12 min at 70 – 80 °C | 2 – 5 days |
| Hot water (food, segregated) | ~28 | 9 min at 82 °C | 3 – 7 days |
| Solvent, closed loop | ~16 | Extraction cycle | 5 – 9 days |
| Rinse and inspection | In line | 3 rinses, conductivity checked | — |
| Cage shop | ~40 cages | Press, dye-check, blast | 1 – 3 days |
| Test bay | ~50 | 3 psi leakproofness | 0 – 1 day |
| 48-hour odour hold | Floor-space limited | 48 h | Fixed |
The constraint that surprises people is the last row. The 48-hour hold is not a queue, it is a fixed dwell, and it is the reason a wash job cannot be compressed below about five days however urgent it is. We will not skip it, because it is the only check that catches permeation.
Toll washing
How a toll-wash programme is set up
For a captive fleet on a rotation, the useful structure is a standing arrangement rather than one-off jobs. This is how those are usually built.
- 01
Establish the residue classes in your fleet
Usually one or two. We need them because chemistry is chosen by residue class, and a fleet that crosses classes needs segregating at intake rather than at the wash bay.
- 02
Agree the grade target and the paperwork
Reconditioned with a wash certificate and test record is the usual answer. If the units carry UN markings we also build the periodic schedule from the plate dates at the same time.
- 03
Set a rotation size and cadence
Washing 40 units a month is far cheaper per unit than 480 once a year, because the queue is predictable and we can slot it. It also means you need a smaller float.
- 04
Decide on asset tagging
If your units are in an ERP system we scan your tags alongside ours so the same serials come back. We do not substitute units on a toll programme.
- 05
Agree the repair threshold
Some units will need a rebottle, a base swap or a new valve. We quote those rather than doing them and invoicing afterwards, so you decide which units are worth keeping.
- 06
Round-trip freight on one booking
Collect and return on the same lane, which is usually cheaper than two one-way bookings and means one set of reusable dunnage.
From the Yard Journal
Longer pieces from the people who run the wash line, the test bay and the trading desk.
26 October 2023 · 5 min
Our first failed partner yard audit
We decertified a yard in 2021. They were not cutting corners on purpose — they were running one wash chemistry, and that is enough.
Marcus Vreeland · Founder
Read2 September 2022 · 6 min
Why your tote still smells after we washed it
Permeation is not a cleaning failure. It is a material property of HDPE, and understanding it explains most of the grading rules in this industry.
Priya Raghunathan · Head of reconditioning
Read18 December 2025 · 4 min
Our grading floor is deliberately boring
Six labelled bays, one decision per unit, no judgement calls allowed at the end of a shift. Interesting processes produce inconsistent grades.
Priya Raghunathan · Head of reconditioning
Read
Next move
Send the prior contents and the unit count.
Those two facts let us name the chemistry, the lead time and the price per unit. If permeation means washing will not achieve what you want, we will tell you before you ship a trailer.