IBC Containment Pallets

An IBC bund is a sealed plastic or steel tray that sits underneath a 1,000 litre intermediate bulk container and holds whatever escapes from it. IBC is short for intermediate bulk container — the cube-shaped tank in a steel cage that most bulk oils, detergents, coolants, AdBlue and agrochemicals are delivered in. Put one on a bare warehouse floor and a split valve empties a tonne of liquid into the nearest drain. Put it on a bund and the same failure becomes a pumping job.

This page covers IBC bunds, IBC bund pallets, IBC spill pallets and IBC containment pallets — different names for the same product — plus fully enclosed IBC storage units with a deep sump base. For drums rather than IBCs, see drum sump pallets; for the whole range including sump flooring and flexible bunds, see spill containment.

IBC bund prices at a glance

Live prices, ex VAT and ex delivery. All three are GPC Industries products manufactured in the UK.

Model	Product	Type	Price
PSP01Z	IBC Containment Pallet — Single	Polyethylene bund for 1 × IBC	£1,564.38
PSP09Z	IBC Containment Pallet — Double	Polyethylene bund for 2 × IBC	£2,352.24
WCI03Z	IBC Storage Unit with Deep Sump Base	Enclosed IBC store, deep sump	£11,820.78

Read the honest price section further down before you buy. The plain polyethylene IBC bund is a commodity product and the volume market sits a long way below our pricing. We would rather tell you that than have you find out at checkout.

One product, half a dozen names

Search for this product and you will be shown six different headings for what is very largely the same thing. It is worth knowing they are interchangeable, because suppliers are not consistent and you will otherwise think you are comparing different items.

• IBC bund — the most common UK term. "Bund" is the containment engineer's word for a retaining wall or tray.
• IBC bund pallet / IBC bunded pallet — the same unit, described by its pallet-like shape and fork entry.
• IBC spill pallet — the safety-catalogue name. Identical product.
• IBC containment pallet — the manufacturer's name, and ours.
• IBC sump pallet — emphasises the reservoir underneath. Also identical.
• IBC drip tray / IBC spill tray — these two are not always the same. A drip tray or spill tray can be a shallow catchment for nuisance drips at a dispensing point, holding tens of litres rather than over a thousand. A drip tray is not secondary containment for a full IBC and will not satisfy anyone inspecting your site.

That last distinction is the one that catches people out. If a listing quotes a sump in the region of 20–100 litres, it is a tray for catching drips at the tap. A bund for a full IBC is a different order of thing.

Why every IBC bund quotes about 1,100 litres

Look across the market and you will see the same numbers repeatedly — 1,100 litres, 1,125 litres, 1,140 litres, 1,260 litres. That is not coincidence and it is not marketing. It is the containment rule doing its work.

UK pollution prevention practice expects secondary containment to hold at least 110% of the largest container, or 25% of the total volume stored, whichever is greater. A standard IBC holds 1,000 litres. 110% of 1,000 is 1,100. So the smallest bund that will do the job for a single IBC has a sump of 1,100 litres, and manufacturers build to just over that figure.

Where it gets interesting is the crossover. With one or two IBCs the 110% test governs, because 25% of 2,000 litres is only 500. Somewhere around four or five IBCs the 25% test takes over: 25% of 5,000 litres is 1,250, which is more than 1,100. From that point on the required bund keeps growing with every container you add, and a "double IBC bund" rated at 1,140 litres is no longer sufficient for four IBCs sat on two of them. Almost no product page in this market explains that, and it is the single most common way people under-buy.

Two practical points that follow, and that we would rather say than not:

• Rainwater in an outdoor bund is capacity you no longer have. A 1,100 litre sump holding 300 litres of rain is a 800 litre sump. Either cover it or empty it on a schedule.
• A full bund is a pumping and waste-disposal job, not a mopping job. Over a tonne of contaminated liquid needs a pump, a receiving vessel and a licensed waste carrier. Worth thinking about before the day you need it.

Does an IBC need to be bunded?

This is the most-asked question on the topic and it deserves a straight answer rather than a confident wrong one, because the answer genuinely depends on what is in the container and where it is standing.

What is not in doubt: if you store oil above the relevant threshold volume in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, oil storage regulations require secondary containment, and the 110% / 25% rule is the standard applied. If you store substances hazardous to health, COSHH requires you to control the risk of release, and the environmental regulators expect containment for anything that could reach a drain, a watercourse or groundwater. If your site has an environmental permit, the permit conditions usually say so explicitly.

Where it is less clear-cut is a single IBC of something relatively benign, stored indoors, on an impermeable floor, away from any drain. There is no single statutory rule that says "every IBC must be bunded" in every circumstance. What there is, in practice, is your own risk assessment, your insurer's expectations, and the fact that an unbunded IBC failure is one of the most expensive incidents a small site can have — clean-up, disposal, potential prosecution and lost production.

Our honest position: settle it against the safety data sheet for what you actually store, your drainage plan, and your permit or insurer's requirements. If any of those three point to containment, bund it. For the underlying rules in more detail, see our guide to what UK law requires on spill containment and bunding.

Standard IBC dimensions — and why the bund is bigger

A standard 1,000 litre IBC has a footprint of roughly 1,200 × 1,000 mm and stands around 1,150–1,200 mm tall on its pallet base. That footprint is why IBC bunds cluster around 1,350–1,500 mm square for a single and 2,300–2,500 mm long for a double: the tray has to take the container plus the sump walls around it.

Two dimensions worth checking before you order:

• Overall height once loaded. A bund adds roughly 250–750 mm under the IBC depending on sump depth. If the container is going under a mezzanine, into a shipping container or beneath a roller shutter, measure the total rather than assuming.
• Dispensing height. Raising the IBC is often the point — it puts the outlet valve at a height where a drum or jerry can fits underneath. A deeper sump gives more containment and a better dispensing height at the same time.

IBC pallet bases themselves are non-standard against normal UK pallet sizes; if you are planning racking or handling around them, our guide to UK pallet sizes covers where the differences bite.

Single, double and stacked

The single IBC bund takes one container. It is the right answer for one bulk product, a single dispensing point, or a first purchase where you want to see how the workflow settles before committing further.

The double IBC bund takes two containers side by side on a shared sump. It costs less than two singles and takes less floor area than two singles, which is why most sites with more than one bulk liquid end up here. The catch is the one nobody prints on the product page: a shared bund puts everything in contact after a spill. If the two IBCs hold substances that react with one another — an acid and an alkali, an oxidiser and a fuel — a shared sump turns one leak into a chemical reaction in a confined tray. Segregate incompatible chemicals onto separate bunds regardless of what the floor plan would prefer. Our hazardous storage range and the COSHH cabinet guide cover segregation more fully.

Stackable and nestable versions exist in the wider market. Nestable bunds stack empty for delivery and storage, which matters if you buy several at once; stackable designs allow loaded IBCs to be stacked two high. Stacking loaded IBCs is a decision to take with your own risk assessment, not a default.

Grid or no grid, and the dispensing area

Most IBC bunds are offered with or without a removable platform grid, and the price difference is usually modest. It is worth understanding what the grid is for.

• With a grid: the IBC sits on a removable deck above the sump. Liquid drains through into the reservoir, the container never stands in what has leaked, and the grid lifts out for cleaning. This is the normal specification.
• Without a grid: cheaper, and fine where the bund is purely a backstop and the container sits on its own base. Less pleasant to clean out.
• With an integral dispensing area: an extended front section, outside the container footprint, where you stand the drum or container you are decanting into. If you dispense regularly this is the option that stops drips landing on the floor in front of the bund — which, in practice, is where most of the day-to-day contamination on a site comes from.

Covers, outdoor storage and frost

"IBC bund with cover" is one of the most-searched variants of this product, and outdoor storage is why. A cover does three jobs: it keeps rainwater out of the sump so your containment capacity stays what you paid for, it keeps UV off the container, and on many sites it keeps the contents out of sight.

Covers come as soft weatherproof hoods on a frame, hard polyethylene lids, and full steel-clad enclosures. In broad terms, a soft cover is the cheap answer to rainwater; a hard cover is the answer where the material needs proper protection; and a fully enclosed unit is the answer where you need security, weather protection and containment together.

Two things to plan for if the bund lives outside: the sump will collect rain even with a cover unless it is fully enclosed, so put emptying it on the inspection schedule; and water in a sump freezes, so a frozen bund in January is a bund with no working capacity at the moment you need it. Our outdoor shelters range covers the wider question of getting equipment under cover.

Polyethylene or steel?

Both are sold widely and the choice is genuinely about the application rather than one being better.

Polyethylene — which is what our containment pallets are made from — has excellent chemical resistance across a very wide range of substances, never corrodes, and does not care about being left wet. It is the default for acids, alkalis, detergents, agrochemicals and most industrial chemistry. It is lighter to move and it will not rust from the inside out where nobody can see.

Galvanised or painted steel is stronger, takes higher point loads, resists mechanical damage from fork tines and dropped equipment, and handles heat and solvents that soften plastics. It is the usual choice where the bund lives in a busy forklift aisle. Steel does need its coating intact; a scraped galvanised bund holding an aggressive chemical will corrode at the scrape. Our guide to galvanised versus powder-coated steel goes into the finishes properly.

Check the safety data sheet for what you store before committing either way. Most decisions are straightforward; a few — strong oxidisers, some solvents — are not.

What an IBC bund actually costs — and where we sit

This is the section most product pages leave out, and in our case it is the one we would most want a buyer to read. Prices below were observed live on UK suppliers at the time of writing and are ex VAT.

• £530–£750 — entry polyethylene single bund. Recycled or basic poly, often without a grid, sometimes two-way fork entry only. A large and competitive tier. We do not sell at this level.
• £750–£1,100 — the volume market. Where most single poly IBC bunds with a removable grid and four-way entry actually trade, and where most doubles sit too. We do not sell at this level either.
• £1,100–£2,600 — galvanised steel, covered and dispensing-station variants. Steel singles and doubles, hard-covered poly units, freestanding stands and built-in dispensers. This is where our PSP01Z and PSP09Z sit on price.
• £2,500–£12,000 — enclosed and engineered. Steel-clad covered bund stores, multi-IBC FRP containment, and fully enclosed IBC storage units with a deep sump base. This is where the WCI03Z belongs and where the comparison is a fair one.

The honest conclusion. On a plain polyethylene IBC bund, we are not competitive. The market for that product runs roughly £530 to £1,100 and our single sits above it. If a basic poly bund with a grid is all you need, buy it from a spill-kit specialist and spend the difference on a spill kit and a decent inspection routine. Where we are worth talking to is the enclosed, engineered end — a genuine IBC store with a deep sump rather than an open tray — and where you are already buying GPC equipment across a site and want it on one order, one delivery and one account.

IBC storage units with a deep sump base

The GPC IBC Storage Unit with Deep Sump Base (WCI03Z) is a different proposition from an open bund. It combines a steel frame with a deep sump base, giving the container a dedicated, contained housing rather than a tray to stand on. It suits outdoor storage, dispensing stations that are in constant use, and higher-risk liquids where an open bund in a yard is not a comfortable answer — particularly where security matters as much as containment.

For related enclosed storage: hazardous storage covers COSHH and flammable cabinets, COSHH cabinets the general chemical range, flammable cabinets the fire-rated end, and lithium battery storage the battery-specific units.

A capacity note we would rather state plainly

GPC does not publish a sump capacity in litres for PSP01Z, PSP09Z or WCI03Z. On a page whose entire compliance argument turns on the 110% rule, that is precisely the number a buyer needs, so we are not going to estimate it, infer it from the footprint, or quote a figure from a comparable product and hope. We will confirm the sump capacity against the manufacturer's drawing before your order is placed. If containment volume is the deciding factor — and for a regulated site it usually is — ask us for that figure first and buy on it.

What our product data does confirm: the containment pallets are manufactured from polyethylene, offer excellent chemical resistance, and have moulded fork pockets allowing easy positioning. The single (PSP01Z) takes one IBC; the double (PSP09Z) takes two.

Handling, delivery and inspection

An IBC bund arrives as a large, awkward, low-value-per-cubic-metre item. Some practicalities:

• You will need a forklift or a pallet truck to get it off the lorry and into position. Fork pockets are there for a reason. See pallet trucks if you do not have suitable handling on site.
• Position it before you load it. A bunded IBC is roughly 1.1 tonnes of liquid plus the container plus the bund, and it is rarely where the delivery driver left it. Move the empty bund; then bring the IBC.
• Firm, level ground. A bund on soft or sloping ground does not sit flat, and a sump that is not level holds less than it should on the low side.
• Inspect it under PUWER as work equipment: check the sump is empty and clean, the grid is sound, there are no cracks or fork damage, and nothing has been stored inside the bund that would displace containment volume. Record the checks.
• Keep a spill kit within reach. A bund buys you time and contains the volume; it does not clean anything up.

What we sell — and what we don't

We sell GPC Industries polyethylene IBC containment pallets in single and double, and the enclosed IBC storage unit with a deep sump base. We do not hire bunds — "IBC bund hire" is a real search and the honest answer is that we sell only, so if you need one for a fortnight, a spill or environmental-services hire firm is your route. We do not sell IBCs themselves, reconditioned or new. We do not sell drip trays for dispensing points; see the wider spill containment range and polyethylene spill pallets for drum-scale options, or flexible portable bunds for temporary and vehicle-based containment.

For 205 litre drums rather than IBCs, go to drum storage and drum sump pallets, or read our guides to spill pallets explained, IBC storage and bunded units, and drum handling equipment.

Not sure which you need? Tell us what you are storing, how much of it, whether it lives indoors or out, and whether you dispense from it — those four answers settle the specification almost every time.