Earnings Per Share (Details Textual) (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended	6 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Apr. 30, 2012	Apr. 30, 2012	Apr. 30, 2012
Earnings Per Share (Textual) [Abstract]
Repurchase of common stock			3,184,272
Earnings Per Share (Additional Textual) [Abstract]
Value of shares authorized to be purchased		up to four million shares of Class A Common Stock or Class B Common Stock or any combination of the foregoing
Number of shares authorized to be purchased	4,000,000	4,000,000	4,000,000
Total cost of the shares repurchased		$ 15.1
Class A common stock [Member]
Earnings Per Share (Textual) [Abstract]
Calculation of EPS		(i) multiply 40% times the average Class A shares outstanding, then divide that amount by the product of 40% of the average Class A shares outstanding plus 60% of the average Class B shares outstanding to get a percentage, (ii) divide undistributed net income attributable to Greif, Inc. by the average Class A shares outstanding, then (iii) multiply item (i) by item (ii), and finally (iv) add item (iii) to the Class A cash dividend per share
Cumulative dividend per year		$ 0.01
Repurchase of common stock	0	0	1,425,452
Proportional distribution of cumulative dividend per year		$ 0.01
Class B common stock [Member]
Earnings Per Share (Textual) [Abstract]
Calculation of EPS		(i) multiply 60% times the average Class B shares outstanding, then divide that amount by the product of 40% of the average Class A shares outstanding plus 60% of the average Class B shares outstanding to get a percentage, (ii) divide undistributed net income attributable to Greif, Inc. by the average Class B shares outstanding, then (iii) multiply item (i) by item (ii), and finally (iv) add item (iii) to the Class B cash dividend per share
Non-cumulative dividend per year		$ 0.005
Repurchase of common stock	1,000	1,000	1,758,820
Proportional distribution of non cumulative dividend per year		$ 0.015