Twenty-four questions, answered properly.

Grade A has been washed on a caustic circuit and is free of residue and odour, with a straight cage. Grade B has been rinsed rather than washed, and typically shows staining, some residual odour or minor cage damage. Both carry a documented prior-contents record. The price gap is about $40 on a 275 gallon unit, and a toll wash at $38 will often turn a B into an A.

The ones we sell as Grade A food-safe are, with two conditions: they carry a traceable single food-contact prior product and a dedicated-line wash certificate, and you should sanitise before first potable fill. We do not sell industrial-history containers for food use at any price.

HDPE resists most water-based chemistry — acids, alkalis, salts, fertilisers, detergents — but is swelled by many solvents and degraded by strong oxidisers. Gasket material matters as much as the bottle. Send us the safety data sheet before ordering and we check both.

A bottle typically manages six to eight service cycles before stress-crazing ends it, which for most customers is eight to fifteen years. Outdoors uncovered, expect four to six years; with a UV-opaque cover, eight to twelve. Cages and pallets usually outlast bottles and are why rebottling exists.

Two high in transit and three high static for full containers, on matched pallet types only, with the fuller unit underneath. Empty totes stack four high. Where the UN plate states a stacking load, that figure governs.

Because certain products — aromatics, essential oils, some solvents — penetrate HDPE rather than sitting on it, and no wash removes them. Any container with detectable odour after washing is downgraded to industrial here. If you receive one from us that smells of anything but clean plastic, we take it back.

A flat $120 inside San Francisco for up to eight totes. Oakland and the inner East Bay is $180, San Jose and the South Bay $240, the North Bay $285 and Sacramento or Stockton $320. Liftgate service is $60 extra. Beyond our own fleet’s range we broker flatbed or LTL freight and quote it separately.

For a flatbed delivery, yes, unless you book liftgate service. A 275 gallon tote is 125 lb empty and does not come off a truck by hand. Tell us at quote time — arriving with a flatbed and no way to unload is the most expensive avoidable mistake in this business.

Some do. The rating attaches to the container as a design type and requires an intact, legible plate plus current periodic test dates. We perform 2.5-year leak tests and 5-year full inspections on site for $38 per unit. What nobody can do is create a rating for a container that never carried one.

Deliberately. Every request — quotes, pickups, freight, complaints — goes through one written channel so nothing is lost to a voicemail nobody checks, and so the answer you get is on the record. It is the thing customers comment on most, and after sixteen years we have no plans to change it.

Yes. Will-call pickup runs Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM and Saturday mornings by appointment, and we host walk-throughs most Wednesday mornings for buyers, procurement teams and sustainability auditors. Steel-toe boots required, high-vis provided.

Our own flatbeds cover the nine Bay Area counties routinely and run weekly to Sacramento, Stockton, Napa and Salinas. Brokered freight reaches the rest of California, Nevada and Oregon within a 250-mile working radius for collection, further for delivery.

Regularly. We hold the insurance certificates and vendor documentation that public procurement requires, and schools, community gardens and non-profits in San Francisco get upcycled builds at cost plus fabrication labour. Mention the organisation in your request.