Plant closure checklist: sell the reusable surplus before you haul

When a plant closes, inventory the reusable packaging and handling gear first, sell it as one lot, and only then bring in a hauler for what is left. Containers, pallets, baskets, racks and bales are usually the easiest things on the floor to sell, and every one sold is one the hauler doesn’t charge you to remove.

Why does the order matter?

Haulers and dumpster services charge by volume, weight or trip. Anything still standing when the hauler arrives is something you pay to remove. A reuse buyer pays you for, or at least takes for free, the same gaylords, totes and racks. So the sequence is simple: sell what has a second life, recycle what has material value, and dispose of the rest.

The second reason is time. A closure has a hard date, often a lease end or a sale closing. Selling surplus takes some lead time to quote and schedule a pickup, while a dumpster can arrive the next day. Starting with the sale keeps both options open.

What should you inventory first?

Walk the dock, the warehouse and the yard with a notepad or phone and write one line per kind of item. For each line, note:

• What it is (gaylord boxes, IBC totes, steel drums, wood pallets, wire baskets, racking)
• How many, roughly. Count stacks and multiply, rather than counting singles.
• Size: a footprint and height for boxes and baskets, a capacity for totes and drums.
• Condition: like new, used but good, damaged, or scrap only.
• What containers held, if anything.
• Who owns it. Pooled pallets, supplier racks and leased trucks are not yours to sell.

That list is a lot manifest. The JunkSell lot builder is that same list in a form, and it saves on your device as you walk.

Checklist: eight weeks to empty

1. Set the date the building must be empty, and the date the last production or shipping stops.
2. Separate what you own from what you don’t: return pooled pallets and supplier racks through their owners, and settle leased equipment with the lessor.
3. Use up, ship or properly dispose of product left in drums and totes. A container sale needs empty containers.
4. Build the lot manifest: every reusable line, with quantity, size and condition.
5. Request one quote for the whole lot. One quote and one pickup plan beats a dozen separate listings.
6. Schedule pickups around the last shipments, so the dock stays usable.
7. Recycle what has material value but no reuse market: baled cardboard, scrap steel, broken plastic.
8. Book the hauler last, for what is genuinely left.

What usually sells, and what usually doesn’t?

Reusable packaging and handling gear in commercial quantities is the easy part: dry gaylords with flaps, drained IBC totes with known contents, steel and plastic drums, sound 48 x 40 pallets, collapsible wire baskets, stacking racks and working pallet jacks. Pallet racking and forklifts sell too, quoted from model, size and condition.

What doesn’t sell: wet or oily cardboard, containers with unknown residue, office furniture, electronics and general trash. Those need a recycler or a hauler. The what we don’t take page lists where they go instead.

What do buyers need from you to quote?

A count, a size and a condition for each line, the pickup ZIP code, whether there is a dock or forklift, and the date it has to be gone. Photos help on mixed or damaged lines. That is enough for a buyer to see whether the lot fills a truck. The truckload calculator shows you the same thing before you ask.

Sources

• US EPA: Sustainable Materials Management, waste management hierarchy