Posts Tagged ‘55 gallon’


Unsung Heroes of Global Trade

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

A recent article by Tom Vanderbilt in Slate called the wooden pallet “the single most important object in the global economy. He claimed that  80% of U.S commerce is carried on pallets and that wood pallets account for  over 46% of U.S. hardwood production.

While the average U. S. consumer may only know wood pallets from their local Sam’s Club, COSTCO, or garden center, as a distributor of industrial packaging, we at Maxi Container, Inc. know just how important are wood pallets.  Almost all of our LTL shipments travel on wood pallets. We use wood pallets in our warehouse to help us properly stack the over 20,000 steel, plastic and fiber drums that we keep in stock. We also used old pallets to make our rain barrel stands that we sell at Green Fairs and through our mirainbarrel line of business.

However, after 20+ years in the industrial packaging business, I want to nominate another under recognized and often overlooked Unsung Hero of Global Commerce, the 55 gallon drum.  According to industry statistics over 24 million steel drums were reconditioned in the U.S. in 2011. In addition as of 2009 another 21 million new steel drums were manufactured in the U.S. As large as these numbers are, they do not include, Europe or Asia (including the emerging markets of China and India) were millions more steel drums are made and reconditioned.

Acids, adhesives, fuels, foods, hazardous and nonhazardous waste, oils and lubricants, paints and coatings, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and solvents are just some of the many items that are routinely shipped in 55 gallon steel drums. They myriad items shipped in steel drums continues to amaze me. Almost every product I see and use, at some point, was in a steel drum. Apple, orange and other fruit juices, Vanilla Extract, motor oil, gasoline, paint, adhesives, Window Cleaner and cleaners of all types, fragrances, soybean oil, chemicals to numerous to mention, used batteries and ballasts, soap and peanut butter to just name a few. As the pictures show, for every wood pallet, there are 4 steel drums. As I often say, without the 55 gallon steel drum industrialized society would grind to a halt.


Lafayette Greens: Compuware Creates an Urban Garden

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Strawnerris growing in a 55-gal drum

On August 31st, Compuware debuted its newest creation (and it’s not software) Lafayette Greens, an urban garden located at the old Lafayette building site, which was demolished in 2009. The community garden will provide all organic produce for Gleaners Community Food Bank (and if there is an over abundance of produce, it will go to the volunteers too!). The garden will be maintained almost entirely by a volunteer workforce. I was fortunate enough to join them for the grand opening celebration.

This initiative is run by Compuware employees Gwen Meyer (onsite manager) and Meg Heeres (project manager). We had the pleasure of meeting them during the development of the garden, consulting on the design types possible with our containers. They eventually had to resort to custom made beds for the majority of the garden, but still utilized our drums in the “Children’s Garden”. In this section our used juice drums were placed in a circular design which is lower to the ground so kids can interact with the plants better. It has a very “zen” feel to it.

The event was spectacular, samples of gourmet cuisine made from fruits and veggies grown in the garden were being passed out. Free drinks (non-alcoholic) and lively music was playing. The news obviously was informed about this event, I think I saw one person from every major local station there! This event was well planned. I enjoyed my afternoon there, though I mostly just hung out in the Children’s Garden where our containers where displayed.

They also are utilizing one of our compost tumblers, though I don’t think a single tumbler will be able to supply the entire gardens needs. The footprint of the garden is the entire corner, it’s pretty big. I urge any and everyone who is in the downtown Detroit area to go in and check it out!

We are so happy to be involved in the beautifying of Detroit with Compuware. At Maxi, we are dedicated to getting involved in our community and the amount of gardens going up in Detroit this year was amazing. We urge others to develop community gardens and work together to turn vacant lots into functional and beautiful gardens. This is the green movement and companies like Compuware and Maxi, and people like Gwen and Meg are what our city needs. Take a moment to check and see if there are any projects planned for your community.

Enjoy this slideshow of pictures from Compuware’s Lafayette Greens Community Garden. You can view these photos on our Flickr as well.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157627569688870″ type=”slideshow” captions=”on” delay=”3″]

Lafayette Greens is on Facebook!


What have you used a #55gallon…

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

What have you used a #55gallondrum for…submit your entries to joshua@maxicontainer.com and you could be featured in our #eNewsletter !