# How do I count emissions for reusable IBC tote tanks?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ibc-tote-tank-reuse-emissions

Spread the making of each IBC over the trips it makes, then add washing and the return trip. A tote used ten times carries a tenth of its manufacturing footprint per trip. Single-use totes carry all of it on one trip.

## Per trip

- Manufacturing footprint divided by trips.
- Washing water, steam and chemicals.
- Empty return transport.

## Keep records

Count trips per tote from your tracking sheet. Reconditioning, a new bottle in an old cage, is a smaller hit than a new IBC.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.

- [HDPE drum footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/hdpe-drum-carbon-footprint-per-drum)
- [FIBC jumbo bag](https://senseible.earth/answers/fibc-jumbo-bag-carbon-footprint-per-bag)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.