Municipal and institutional buyers have to specify what they are buying in words a competitor cannot game. Most tote specifications we see are either unbuildably vague or accidentally single-source. Here is a template that is neither.
There is no national grading authority for used IBCs, which means 'Grade A' in a bid document is legally meaningless. A specification has to describe the container, not name a letter, or you will receive exactly what the cheapest bidder decides the letter means.
Undefined industry-wide, so it either excludes everybody honest or includes everybody dishonest. Describe the condition instead and you will get what you wanted at a Grade B price, because Grade B is often exactly what the description allows.
This is the clause that generates the most disputes in public procurement. If you need food contact, specify the four documents: resin certification, contents history, validated cleaning with cycle detail, lab verification. If you do not need food contact, do not write the words.
If you want new, specify new and pay for it. Asking for a used container in like-new condition is how a bid ends up single-source, over budget, or awarded to whoever is most relaxed about language.
We lose bids to vaguer specifications regularly, and we would rather that than win one by interpreting a loose clause generously. Three municipal customers have taken our published grading standard and cited it directly in their specifications, which is a legitimate and common approach — and we would say the same about any reconditioner who publishes theirs.
Ask for the municipal packet: specifications, grade definitions, diversion methodology and the avoided-emissions figures with sources, in a format that drops into a bid document.