In the material handling business, the intersection of industry is quite diverse.  If products, parts, components, or other raw materials are shipped from supplier to manufacturer, odds are, they’re shipped in a drum.  While much of our business comes out of the chemical/petrochemical world, there are many other industries we’ve worked with that utilize the 55 gallon drum; some contain precious metals (used by companies to produce mobile devices and other electronic), some packaged tomatoes bound for the red sauce you purchase at the grocery store, still others had drums filled with rivets used to safely fasten the hull of your aluminum bass boat and keep you high and dry while you entice the new world record largemouth!

In more than 65 years of manufacturing drum and barrel handling equipment, we thought we’d seen it all – until now.  During a recent brainstorming session, one of our staff members performed an internet search and began laughing out loud during our meeting.  When we asked what the joke was, she turned the screen to show us the results of a search for different uses of 55 gallon drums.  The results -we all agreed- were pretty funny, so much so that we couldn’t help but share them with you here!  Some of the best ones were:

You can buy 55 gallons of olive oil from a company online for US$ 1650.  Make sure to invite lots of friends and have a very large cook pot to work with

• Instructions on how to build a 55-gallon smoker – home-smoked meats!
• Compost, anyone?  Full instructions on making a 55-gallon portable composter out of a drum.
• Have a bug problem?  You can order 55 gallons of a natural mosquito repellent.   (Probably help when you’ve got the big party over – see “olive oil” above)
• Another “how-to”;  Burn barrels (where legal) are commonly made of 55-gallon steel drums
• Grains storage is apparently also popular – buying and burying grains in bulk (Trade with olive oil if push comes to shove)

The creative uses for the most widely recognized shipping container just keep on coming – tweet @drumhandling to tell us yours! As we get more news you can use, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop here on our blog, and on our social media channels.