Bulk bags shipped to Florida

Who fills bulk bags in Florida

Phosphate country in the middle of the state

Central Florida east and southeast of Tampa, the old Bone Valley district, sits on phosphate rock, and there is more mined in the north of the state near White Springs. The rock is turned into phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers at plants near Tampa Bay, and a good share leaves through the port.

Granular phosphate fertilizer is dense and draws moisture from humid air. Dealers and blenders who bag it want coated fabric, a liner if bags sit before use, a duffle top for a quick fill under a hopper and a spout bottom with a tie so the spreader or tender can be filled in measured drops.

Mulberry, Bartow and Lakeland in Polk County are the towns at the heart of the mining district, and the land around them shows it: reclaimed pits, clay settling areas and lakes left from old cuts.

Fertilizer bags pick up dust and residue that do not wash out. They are not candidates for a second life holding anything else; when they are empty, they go to recycling.

Sugar, citrus and nursery soil

Sugarcane grows on the muck soils south and east of Lake Okeechobee, around Belle Glade, Clewiston and South Bay. Harvest and milling run through the winter months. Sugar is a food, so any sugar headed for a food plant travels in new food-grade bags, usually with a liner and a spout bottom for clean discharge into a process.

Citrus groves in the central ridge and southwest feed juice plants, and the peel and pulp left over are dried into pellets sold as cattle feed. Citrus pulp pellets are bulky and dusty; coated bags with a wide spout keep them flowing.

Florida's nurseries and greenhouses buy growing media by the bag: peat, bark, perlite and potting mixes. Those are light and bulky, best in a tall duffle-top bag, and the growers usually cut them open, so a flat bottom is common.

Rock, sand and cement

Most of Florida is built on limestone. Quarries in the Lake Belt west of Miami and in the Brooksville area north of Tampa produce crushed stone, and cement plants work alongside them. Sand mines along the central ridge supply construction and specialty sand.

Aggregate and sand are the classic loads for used bags. A bag built 6:1 that passes inspection, with sound loops and no cuts, abrasion or sun damage, can carry stone or sand again. Cement and fine mineral powders need coated, sift-proof new bags, and the dust stays inside.

North Florida and the Panhandle are pine country, with timber, pulp and paper mills and wood pellet plants. Wood pellets and sawdust are light, dry and dusty; a coated duffle-top bag with a spout bottom keeps them flowing and keeps fines off the floor.

Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee are reached across I-10 from Mobile or from Jacksonville. That stretch is long and lightly served, so Panhandle buyers often do better ordering fewer, larger loads.

A peninsula with more freight in than out

Every truck into the peninsula comes down I-75 from Georgia, I-95 down the Atlantic side, or I-10 across the Panhandle to Jacksonville. Inside the state, I-4 joins Tampa, Lakeland and Orlando, I-75 runs down the Gulf side to Fort Myers and across Alligator Alley, and Florida's Turnpike links Orlando with South Florida.

More freight moves into Florida than out of it, so carriers price that imbalance into their rates. Lakeland, halfway between Tampa and Orlando on I-4, is a distribution hub where loads are often consolidated before the last leg.

The seaports cover every coast: Port Tampa Bay and Port Manatee on the Gulf side, JAXPORT at Jacksonville, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades and PortMiami on the Atlantic. Port Tampa Bay handles a lot of the phosphate and fertilizer trade.

Sun, humidity and hurricane season

Florida is hard on polypropylene left outside. Bag makers' handling guidance says UV light softens and powders the fabric surface and that bags left in prolonged sun should not be lifted. Keep bales under cover and filled bags out of direct sun, and inspect every bag before use.

Atlantic hurricane season runs from June through November. Ahead of a storm, get filled bags off open yards, move bales away from roll-up doors, and do not lift a bag that has been soaked and sun-baked without checking its fabric and loops.

For a quote, give us the product, SWL, safety factor, top, bottom, liner and ZIP. We book empties pickups across the state for buy-back or recycling; tell us what the bags carried and whether they are 5:1 or 6:1.

Because trucks leaving the peninsula often run with spare room, outbound capacity for an empties pickup is usually easier to find than inbound capacity for new bags.