Closed-loop water
Reuse stopped being a story we told and became arithmetic we could defend. Fresh water per tote: 60 gal to 4.
Our story / milestones
Seventeen years, told in order
Every year that changed how the yard works — including the one where we got it wrong and published the number anyway.
- Sheet
- 93
- Revision
- 2026-10
- Scale
- 1:1
- Drawn at
- Peoria IL
- 2009
Ninety totes and a borrowed pressure washer
First load hauled out of Chillicothe on a rented flatbed. Washed in a gravel lot, sold to a greenhouse inside two weeks.
- 2011
The Chanute Road yard
Two acres, a gravel pad and a used forklift. Still the same address, just considerably more concrete now.
- 2012
First grading standard
Four bands, written on a whiteboard that stayed up for six years. Eighteen checks came later.
- 2014
The wash bay goes closed loop
Sump, separator and filtration installed. Fresh water use per tote drops from 60 gallons to about 4.
- 2015
Rebottling line
We stop scrapping containers with failed bottles and start reusing cages and pallets at scale.
- 2016
First fleet pooling customer
A regional syrup distributor asks us to just manage their containers. The program still runs.
- 2017
The bad year
A contaminated load we should have refused pushes diversion down to 91%. Intake rules rewritten; the write-up stays in the archive.
- 2018
Fabrication shop opens
Rain harvesters, planters and cut-tops stop being a side hustle and become a product line.
- 2019
We delete the phone number
Everything moves to writing. Response times improve, disputes nearly vanish, and audits get boring.
- 2020
Essential operations
Sanitiser and disinfectant producers need containers immediately. The yard runs six days a week for nine months.
- 2021
Granulator installed
HDPE regrind handled in house instead of brokered out. Diversion crosses 95%.
- 2022
The Circular Tote Standard published
Six commitments with dates attached, written so a customer can audit us against them.
- 2023
300-mile radius formalised
Standing lanes replace one-off trips, which is why pickup became free on qualifying loads.
- 2024
Serialisation
Laser-etched internal IDs and QR placards. Every container gets a traceable history from intake to release.
- 2025
97% diversion, zero whole totes landfilled
Our best year on both numbers. The remaining 3% is gasket rubber, adhesive and wash sludge.
- 2026
The Loop Lab goes public
The internal grading-to-next-life logic our yard crew used for years, turned into a tool anybody can use.
Three inflection points worth naming
Rebottling
Suddenly a cracked bottle was a $60 repair instead of a scrapped container. Diversion jumped nine points in a year.
Writing only
No phone line. Every commitment timestamped, every grade disputable against a record. The single best operational decision we made.
Seventeen years in five metrics
| Metric | 2011 | 2015 | 2019 | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Containers handled | ~2,400 | 18,900 | 28,300 | 36,100 | 41,200 |
| Diversion rate | Not measured | 92% | 94% | 95% | 97% |
| Fresh water per wash | ~60 gal | 6.8 gal | 5.2 gal | 4.4 gal | 4.1 gal |
| Headcount | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| Service radius | 60 mi | 150 mi | 250 mi | 300 mi | 300 mi |
| Grade bands published | 0 | 4 (whiteboard) | 4 (written) | 4 + 18 checks | 4 + 18 checks + staining scale |
- The water figure is the one we are proudest of. It fell by a factor of fifteen and it cost a capital project nobody asked us for.
- The diversion figure moved five points in a decade, and every single point required either equipment or a rule that cost us revenue.
- The radius stopped growing at 300 miles on purpose. Beyond that the freight arithmetic stops working and free pickup becomes a lie.
- Headcount per container handled has fallen by three quarters, which is the only reason a nine-person yard can run this volume.
Four things we got wrong on the way
Waiting until 2014 to close the water loop
For five years we ran an open-loop pressure washer in a gravel lot and told a reuse story. The honest description is that we moved an environmental cost from the landfill column to the water column, and we should have seen it sooner.
Accepting the 2017 load
A large customer, an urgent deadline, and a site that could not describe half of what it was sending. Diversion fell two points and roughly nine tons went to landfill. The intake refusal list dates from that week.
Selling Grade C to anybody who asked
Nine percent of revenue and sixty-eight percent of complaints, for years, because nobody had explained what the grade was for. The fix was a sentence in the quote, not a change to the product.
Backfilling serialisation during a season
We budgeted six weeks to serialise standing inventory and it took five months, while running a spring. Inbound-only first would have been obvious to anybody who had done it before.
All four are written up properly
The 2017 load has its own report, still unedited in the archive. The Grade C decision and the serialisation rollout are both on the blog, with the numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the yard start and where did it begin?
The timeline starts in 2009 with ninety totes hauled out of Chillicothe on a rented flatbed and washed in a gravel lot. The current Chanute Road yard dates from 2011 and is still the same address.
What changed when the wash bay went closed loop?
In 2014 the yard installed a sump, separator and filtration. Fresh water use per tote fell from about 60 gallons to about 4, and the site calls it reuse becoming arithmetic it could defend.
Why did the yard stop taking phone calls?
In 2019 everything moved to writing. The site says response times improved, disputes nearly vanished and audits became boring. Every commitment is timestamped and every grade can be checked against a record.
What went wrong in 2017?
A contaminated load that should have been refused pushed diversion down to 91 percent, and roughly nine tons went to landfill. Intake rules were rewritten, and the full report stays unedited in the archive.
Why does the service radius stop at 300 miles?
The site says that was on purpose. Beyond 300 miles the freight arithmetic stops working and free pickup would become a lie. Standing lanes replaced one-off trips in 2023, which is why pickup is free on qualifying loads.