Flexing our reuse muscle
One of the positives of living in a rural area is access to used ranch and farm materials that would either sit and rot away or be thrown away in the local landfill. The local wheat ranchers who own large amounts of land need to buy fertilizer and chemicals in bulk. These items usually come in a large 250 gallon plastic tank called a shuttle. The real gem is not the tank itself, but the metal cage that is used to hold and store the plastic tanks. The shuttles meassure a little under 48" square. Here is an example of a pair that has been dropped off at our shop.
After removing a few bolts the top rails can be removed and the
tank itself slides out leaving you a full cage that can handle heavy
loads of whatever material you can fit inside. You can also see that it
is pallet jack and forklift friendly. At Tuckington Industries we use
them to hold and store our commercial inner tubes. We cut the plastic tanks up into manageable pieces and recycle them. The picture below is
an example of two cages storing about 500 lbs of rubber each that are
awaiting to be upcycled into something special.
