A last-contents disclosure moves a load up a price band. It takes about ninety seconds to write and most sellers never write it, which is why most loads sell for less than they are worth.
The format we accept
Per unit, or per homogeneous group of units: product name as written on the original label, manufacturer, approximate concentration if diluted, the date the unit was last emptied, whether it was rinsed and how, and whether a safety data sheet is available.
A worked example: 'Twelve units. Contents: propylene glycol coolant, 50% solution, Dow. Last emptied approx. March 2022. Drained, not rinsed. SDS available.' That is a complete disclosure and it took one line.
Why each element is there
- Product name, as labelled — because trade names tell us the chemistry and the generic description often does not.
- Manufacturer — because formulations differ, and additives are what permeate.
- Concentration — because dilute and concentrated versions of the same product wash completely differently.
- Date emptied — because residue that has dried for eighteen months is a different problem from residue emptied last week.
- Rinse status — because a rinsed unit skips a stage on our line, and that shows up in what we pay you.
- SDS availability — because for anything that is not food, water or a common agricultural product, it is the document that lets us wash rather than scrap.
What to do when you genuinely do not know
Say so, specifically, and tell us what you do know. 'Bought this site in 2019; these were already here; the business before us was a floor-coatings blender' is enormously more useful than silence. It tells us the plausible chemistry family, which tells us whether it is worth testing a sample.
What does not help is guessing confidently. A wrong disclosure is worse than no disclosure, because we act on it.
What we do with it
It goes into the passport file for that cage and stays there permanently, through every future owner. Ten years from now, somebody buying that unit from us will be able to see that it held 50% propylene glycol coolant in 2022, and that is why they will be able to trust the grade we put on it.
Documentation is not paperwork about the product. For used equipment, documentation is a component of the product.
