The long-form
reading list.
Five articles, each born from a question we've been asked more than a hundred times. Updated quarterly. If there's something missing you'd like us to write, email the yard.
Skip the phone tag. Leave a note — we'll reply by email.
Why reused totes beat new ones for 90% of jobs
A side-by-side of cost, lifespan, and carbon for a used 275-gallon tote versus a new one. Reused almost always wins — with the handful of exceptions clearly called out.
Building a 275-gallon rain harvester that actually works
Parts list, diameters, mosquito tricks, and three lessons we learned the hard way. A weekend project that saves up to 8,000 gallons per year.
Food-grade rules, in plain English
FDA 21 CFR 177.1520, bottle lot numbers, and the five questions that tell you whether a tote is safe to put consumables into.
The IBC safety handbook — handling, stacking, moving
Forklift posture, stack limits, pallet check, cage inspection, and the one thing everybody gets wrong about static electricity.
The anatomy of an IBC tote
Every part of a 275-gallon caged composite, labeled. Why each piece exists, how it fails, and how much it costs to replace.
How we pick what to write about.
Every article on this list started as an email question we answered more than a hundred times. When we notice ourselves writing the same two-page reply over and over, Wren turns it into a long-form piece and we link the next asker to the article instead.
That's why the catalog grows slowly. We'd rather publish five articles worth re-reading than thirty that skim the surface. If there's a question you wish we'd answered, email the yard with “ARTICLE IDEA” in the subject — we keep a running backlog pinned above the coffee maker.
Articles are fact-checked by at least two of us before they ship. Numbers get citations. When the figure is from our own yard, we say so. When it's from a study, we link the study. Corrections, when needed, are added at the bottom of the article with a dated note — never edited silently.
- Every claim with a number cites its source or says “our yard, [year].”
- If an article recommends a specific product, it's one we use — no affiliate links.
- We don't take sponsored articles. Ever. Not even from our pellet buyers.
- Every post is reviewed by the foreman or Dale before publication.
- Corrections are dated, not rewritten. Old drafts stay archived.
On the editorial desk.
The short list of pieces we've committed to writing in the next year. Not a promise — a pinned note above the coffee maker.
- Q2Field notes — what a year of biodiesel fuel logs actually tells us
With fuel prices bouncing, we wanted to know whether B20 is still the right call for a small fleet like ours. The short answer is yes; the long answer is fifteen pages of receipts.
- Q3The pellet chain — who ends up with our reclaimed HDPE, and why
A visit to one of our Ohio pellet buyers, plus a walk-through of how they formulate new inner bottles from our output. Photographs included.
- Q4What we'd do differently if we were starting today
A candid post for anyone considering starting a reconditioning yard. Cost estimates, mistakes to skip, and the single piece of equipment to buy before anything else.
- Q1 2027Cage metallurgy — why some frames rust in two years and others last twenty
A deep dive with our scrap partner in Etna on cage steel quality across manufacturers. Useful for anyone buying in bulk.
Quick topic index.
If you're hunting for something specific, these tags cross-link the articles and the main resource pages.