Plastic crates and bulk bins in Colorado

Beef country containers

Colorado had 920,000 cattle on feed and about 2.55 million cattle in all on January 1, 2026, by USDA NASS counts. Greeley, north of Denver, is where JBS USA, one of the largest meat processors, has its headquarters. Feedlots and packing feed a long chain of cutting, grinding and distribution.

Meat and poultry work wants containers that clean easily: smooth-wall stacking crates and lugs, solid-wall bulk combo bins for trim, and lidded totes that seal between rooms. Colors often code product or allergen lines. Used containers for food zones need a document check first; ask the maker's papers and tell us what the box held. See meat and poultry for more.

Hygiene drives material choice. Polyethylene shrugs off most caustic washes; polypropylene is stiffer and lighter but can turn brittle in a blast freezer. Makers publish temperature ranges, and we pass those sheets along with every quote.

Container types by Colorado sector

Potatoes, corn and Western Slope peaches

Corn led Colorado crops in 2025 at about $732 million, then hay, wheat and potatoes at about $178 million. Peaches were a small line, about $36 million, but they need careful containers. A ripe peach bruises under its own stack weight, so orchards around Grand Junction lean on shallow, vented hand-held crates that cross-stack without pressing the fruit.

Potato storages want strength instead: thick floors, wide runners and a rated capacity that clears the fill weight. Corn and wheat move as bulk grain, but seed and sample handling still buys solid bins and totes.

I-25, I-70 and the Front Range

I-25 runs north and south along the Front Range, through Greeley's neighbor Fort Collins, Denver, and on to Colorado Springs and Pueblo. I-70 crosses the mountains to Grand Junction, and I-76 splits off northeast toward Nebraska. Mountain grades and winter closures can affect when a carrier will run I-70, so we quote the freight and let the carrier confirm timing.

Front Range warehouses take most of the LTL orders: a few pallets of totes or crates at a time. Plants and potato storages usually order bins by the trailer. A 53-foot truck holds far more folded collapsibles than assembled bins; ORBIS lists its GP4048-34 at 90 set up versus 240 collapsed.

Plenty of Denver addresses have no dock. Carriers can add a liftgate, call ahead or book an appointment window, and each extra service is a line on the freight quote. A residential or limited-access address, like a school, farm or construction site, also changes the price, so mention it when you ask.

Dairies, breweries and the plant floor

Colorado has about 34,900 farms on 29.2 million acres and produced about 5.46 billion lb of milk in 2025. Dairies on the plains east of Greeley and in the Platte valley feed processors that buy case crates, ingredient totes and lidded containers for spare parts and clean-in-place fittings.

Beverage and packaging lines in any state use returnable crates and totes for cans, caps, labels and keg fittings. Precision-parts shops tend to want smaller boxes: euro-style stacking containers, antistatic options and cell dunnage that keeps each part from touching the next.

Whatever the line, two numbers guide us: the weight per container and how many high it stacks. A maker's static rating covers a stack sitting still on the floor; the dynamic rating covers a stack carried on a forklift or truck. The dynamic figure is always lower, and it is the one to plan with if loaded boxes move. Our stacking limits guide explains both.

Selling Colorado surplus

We buy reusable bins, crates and totes in volume, including combo bins a plant has retired and collapsibles left over from a parts program. Give us the count, footprint, height, condition grade and pickup address, plus what the containers carried. Use the sell page to start.