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IBC TotesSan Francisco
Products · Upcycled builds · Gallery

Twelve things that used to be tanks.

Every one of these started as a container that failed a leak test. Instead of going straight to the granulator it got another decade or two of work. That postponement is worth more, environmentally, than any recycling process we could run on it.
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No phone tag — email only

Send a sketch, a photo or a description. Tomás in the fabrication shop comes back with a materials list, a price and an honest opinion about whether it will work.

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Letters, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes only.
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US ZIP (94124) or Canadian postal code (M5V 2T6).
Whole containers. No minimum order.

We only use these details to quote your job. No lists, no resale, no robocalls — we do not even own a phone line.

2022 – 2026

The record

2024 · 18 half-totes

Bayview Elementary wicking beds

Cut horizontally, fitted with a 40-gallon reservoir, a gravel wick bed and an overflow at soil level. The school waters once a week instead of daily, which is the difference between a garden that survives summer break and one that does not.

2023 · 6 units

Ferry Building market wash stations

A 275 gallon food-grade tote on a welded stand, a foot-pump tap, a stainless basin and a 55 gallon greywater catch underneath. Rolls onto a pallet jack, complies with market health requirements, cost a third of the commercial equivalent.

2025 · 4 tumblers

Sunset District community compost

Cage retained, bottle cut with a hinged hatch, welded axle through the cage and a stand made from two steel pallets. Turns with one hand when half full, which is more than can be said for most commercial tumblers.

2024 · 2 bed sets

Hunters Point aquaponics classroom

Top third of a tote as a sump, bottom two thirds as a media bed, bell siphon plumbed between them. Built with a community college programme; the plans are open and we will send them to anyone who asks.

2023 · 9 cages

Presidio trailhead tool cages

Bare frames with a welded door, a hasp and a steel pallet floor. Ventilated by design, which matters for the fuel cans, and considerably cheaper than a job box.

2022 · 12 frames

Mission farmers market stalls

Cages cut down to counter height, powder-coated, with shelving rails and canopy mounts. Stack four high in a van and set up in under a minute.

2025 · 7 planters

Marin restaurant herb wall

Vertical wicking planters with the cage retained as a trellis. The kitchen picks from it directly; the cage bars turned out to be perfect for training vines.

2024 · 5 linked totes

Berkeley co-op rain array

1,375 gallons on a bunded steel frame plumbed to a shared downspout, with a first-flush diverter, balanced draw and an overflow routed to a rain garden.

2023 · 1 unit + drum

Oakland shipyard parts washer

Open-top tote as a wash tank, drum as a solvent reservoir, pump and filter between them. Built around a solvent the customer already used; the gasket spec took longer than the welding.

2022 · 8 totes

Daly City fire station water store

Grade A food-safe units with UV-opaque covers, on a bunded platform, rotated on a six-month schedule. Not glamorous, and probably the build we are most pleased with.

2025 · 11 units

SF Botanical Garden potting benches

Half-totes on welded legs with a drain and a soil lip, plus lower shelves from cut cage sections. Six years of chemical service, then twenty years of potting soil.

2024 · 3 units

Petaluma brewery grain hoppers

Inverted totes with a cut cone and a slide gate, mounted on a mezzanine frame. The one time a customer wanted the container to hold something dry and heavy, and it worked.

From the yard

Mixed-condition IBC totes in an outdoor yard under a blue sky, including one heavily stained amber unit
02Grade A, B and scrap, side by side, before the grading deck sorts them
A blue tractor unit with a flatbed trailer loaded with strapped IBC totes beside a warehouse roller door
06A flatbed loading out — strapped over the cage rail, never over the bottle
Rows of used caged IBC totes stacked two high on a concrete pad under an overcast sky
01Graded stock on the outdoor pad, waiting on a wash slot
Interior of a warehouse with IBC totes racked on shelving and stored on the floor in a range of colours and conditions
Colour tells you about prior contents, not about condition
A single clean 275 gallon caged IBC tote showing its data plate marked 275 Gallon 1041 Liter and Transport 1650 kg max
Grade A washed, re-gasketed, tested at 3 psi and ready to ship
The Bancroft Avenue reconditioning yard packed with IBC totes, with the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco skyline behind it
Three and a half acres between the freeway and the water
Close view of IBC totes strapped in two tiers on a flatbed trailer, showing 275 gallon labels and ratchet straps
Every load is checked against the manifest before the gate opens