Plastic crates and bulk bins in Michigan

Selling surplus containers from Michigan

Michigan has more vehicle assembly plants than any other state on Wikipedia's list: Ford in Dearborn, Wayne and Flat Rock; GM in Detroit, Flint and Lansing; and Stellantis in Detroit, Sterling Heights and Warren. Detroit Diesel builds engines in Redford. Every model change at those plants retires part numbers, and suppliers end up holding collapsibles, euro bins and dunnage the next program won't use.

We buy that surplus in volume. Shells are the easiest to resell; part-specific dunnage is harder, so tell us whether it stays in the box. For a quick price, send the count, maker and model, height, number and side of drop doors, lid status, color, grade and the pickup address, plus photos of a few typical units and their bases. Pickup is quoted as its own load. Start at sell collapsibles or read how selling works.

Buying 48x45 collapsibles and euro bins

The same churn makes Michigan a good place to buy used. The AIAG 48x45 footprint dominates; ORBIS calls its 48x45 BulkPak the standard and lists 17 versions from about 19 to 50 inches tall rated 1,500 to 2,000 lb. A 2015 Logistics Management column noted that collapsibles on that footprint are widely used in the auto industry because return freight becomes a major cost beyond roughly 500 miles, and folding removes the air from the empty trip.

We grade used units A, B or C and say what that means for each lot: grade A near-new, B with wear or repairs but full function, C structurally sound but rough. Refurbished units have been cleaned, inspected and repaired. Small parts ride in hand-held euro containers, which often turn up secondhand in common colors.

What Michigan buyers order

Apples, blueberries, potatoes and pickles

Michigan's 2025 crops included apples worth about $322 million, potatoes $291 million, blueberries $130 million and cucumbers $68 million. Apples need vented macro bins that stack in cold or controlled-atmosphere storage and have smooth inner walls. Blueberries want shallow vented crates that never press the fruit. Potatoes and pickling cucumbers are dense and wet, so growers and processors choose heavy bins with strong floors and runners.

Michigan also had 460,000 milk cows on January 1, 2026 and produced about 12.5 billion lb of milk worth $2.68 billion; dairies and processors buy case crates and lidded containers. For product contact, we never call a used container food-grade; ask the maker's documents and tell us what it held.

Pickling cucumbers and brine

Pickling cucumbers are picked fast, graded by size and often sent to brine tanks or straight to a packing plant. Field bins for them need open floors to drain, sturdy walls to carry a dense load, and a surface that cleans easily after contact with soil and juice. Salt and acidic brines can attack metal fittings, which is one reason growers move to all-plastic bins.

If bins go near brine, ask the maker about chemical resistance, and keep cucumber bins separate from fleets used for apples or blueberries. Cross-use spreads soil and residue between crops and complicates any food-safety audit.

Freight across the Lower Peninsula

I-75 runs north from Toledo through Detroit and Flint to Saginaw and beyond, I-94 crosses from Detroit through Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo toward Chicago, I-96 links Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids, I-69 runs from Port Huron through Flint and Lansing toward Indiana, and I-196 serves the west side near Grand Rapids and the fruit belt along Lake Michigan.

Short hauls between suppliers and plants make LTL practical for small top-ups. A program of collapsibles, or a load of surplus being picked up, is a truckload. ORBIS lists 240 of its folded 48x40 GP4048-34 units per 53-foot trailer versus 90 assembled, so we price pickups of folded surplus accordingly.

Engines and heavy parts

Engine and powertrain parts, like those from Detroit Diesel's Redford plant, are dense and heavy. Containers for them need high rated loads, stiff bases and dunnage that keeps machined surfaces apart. Plan stack heights around the dynamic rating if loaded containers move; it's lower than the static one. See stacking limits.