Soft drink bottling companies and other food processing companies are a good source. You might also consider car washes but the barrels would have probably contained detergent. Minute amounts of detergent shouldn't hurt plants. Plastic barrels are permeable and chemicals will stay in the plastic so stay away from barrels that have had toxic stuff in them. Look for companies that recycle barrels and see if they have some that contained food products.

Try: BIG delis and food importers (olive barrels)

Large buildings' maintenance or facilities department (water treatment chemicals for the air conditioning units)

Feed mills (vitamin/mineral supplements)

My son bought a metal one from Haggerty Metals (a scrap metal yard) on Haggerty Road, just north of Schoolcraft (I96, but there's not a Haggerty exit). He paid $5.

I think they're in Plymouth if you want to get their # and call.

sometimes you can find people throwing them out...but they are in demand now...very...shall I say "in" to have a rain barrel. I just started buying 35 gallon rubbermaid garbage cans (usually under $9 at Farm and Fleet). I have about 8 of them lined up...one under my downspouts and a few along side. I use a bucket to transfer, and when full I put the top back on to prevent mosquitos. I've been out there in down pours transfering from one barrel to the others. Neighbor must think I'm a goof.

kathy in Illinois

Thats what I ended up doing. I have two 35 gallon garbage cans (the ones with Wheels) connected with a two inch pvc pipe at the bottom of them. I connected one of the cans to the rainpipe. I have them elevated on those old metal garbage can racks. This elevates them so I can place my two gallon watering bucket under the pvc valve that lets the water out. It works like a charm. I hate work, so I made sure I put a 1-1/8" pvc valve on the one can. It fills the watering can faster than my water faucet. Just a couple days after I got it working an old man down the street had a stroke and his wife gave me his barrel. I couldn't believe he was dipping the water out. Too much work for me. So now I have my own system, and haven't had to rig the 55 gallon drum yet. I'll try to get some pics and post them. Thanks.

Kathy -
Make a "manifold" ... a pipe device that connects them all through holes near the top of each container. When the first one fills it spills over into the second one ... down to the last one.

Hello:
I work at a local newspaper and we get our black ink in 55 gallon drums. The ink is based on soy bean oil. You might look around for where they print small local papers and ask if they have any empties. Avoid places like Chacago, they get their ink by tanker truck.

I know this is kind of late, but, I just got here.

Just wanted you to know that my Water system work fantastic last summer. There were no leaks, no mosquitos, and really no ugly green water. The original lids of the trash cans were no help because the weight of the water in the cans would stretch out the barrels and the lids wouldn't snap on. I ended up putting a patio stone on them. I'll have to try some new type of lids this summer. The valves were just perfect. Big enough not to wait long for the 2 gallon watering can to fill up. In fact the water flowed out faster than the water from my house spiquet. I reconnected the gutter downspout at the end of summer and turned the drums on their sides so that they wouldn't fill up with snow during the winter. The bottom connector even worked like a charm. It kept both cans filled at the same height all summer. I always wondered why you will put the attachment to the other can at the top... maybe that is helpful if you dip the water out, but with the bottom valves I eliminated that. Got a new digital camera, so I'll post some pics of what this thing looks like in the spring. All in all, final grade A-