STRIKINGLY CREATIVE USES FOR OLD SHIPPING CONTAINERS

There’s nothing that does both the heart and mind better than re-purposing old things. You save room in landfills, the planet gets a break, and you extract value for yourself from something that would otherwise be tossed aside. No matter how you look at it, there are wins on every front.

The Biggest Win of All: Re-Purposing Shipping Containers

All this goes double when your old things are huge, resource-heavy shipping containers. You know the ones: those gigantic steel boxes that get stacked on global shipping carriers. They’re off-loaded at shipping yards, lifted onto 18-wheeler trucks, and hauled across the nation’s highways.

Inside, you’ll find the things from which our lives are made: clothing, electronics, toys, furniture, and just about any household goods you can lay your finger on. Chances are, somewhere along the way, it was transported in a shipping container. That’s why there are currently over 17 million of them in the world today(1).

The Big Old Problem with the Big Old Containers

At a certain point in their lives, shipping containers lose their luster. They become worn out, no longer passing strict international standards for integrity. They must retire, which means one of two things: they get melted down so the steel can be reused or they get re-purposed. Sometimes, when they get re-purposed, it happens in amazingly creative, inspiring ways.

For everyone who’s ever wondered what people are doing these days with old shipping containers, here are some wonderfully innovative ideas.

8 Innovative Uses for Old Shipping Containers

1. Mini Movie Theaters

Starting in NYC (where else!), then moving to Chicago, L.A., and San Francisco, a series of shipping containers -turned movie theaters served as screening rooms for art-house films. Stark and air-conditioned, each held 18 people. The pods were commissioned by USA Network’s Character Project and viewers were treated to short films produced in partnership with Ridley Scott.

The beauty of the pods lay in the mere fact that they were pods: making possible a traveling theater that offered multiple screening venues on a small scale.

2. A World Cup Soccer Stadium

n 2022, the World Cup will be held in Qatar, where it’s about a million degrees in December. No probs, say some Chinese engineers who plan to build a 40,000-seat stadium for the event(2). It will take almost a thousand shipping containers. The beauty of it this time? The whole thing can be taken down after the games are done.

3. Portable, Efficient Cryptocurrency Mining Farms

Mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin takes tons of energy. People who do the mining like to be able to chase cheap energy around the world. Housing their hardware in old shipping containers allows them to pick up and move to wherever cheaper electricity can be found. There’s a company from Estonia that specializes in this type of container conversion (3). Being portable fulfills a common objective of freeing cryptocurrency from the bounds of any government boundaries and regulations.

4. Rocket Testing Sites in Brooklyn

Nope, that’s not a typo. A startup is actually testing rocket launchers in the NYC area using old shipping containers. Fueled by the innovative mind of a serial entrepreneur who created Livestream, the company uses the containers to house machinery, pressurized tanks, and cables associated with getting his rockets off the ground(4).

5. Portals for Conducting Real-Time Conversations Around the Globe

A gold-painted container served as a portal where anyone who entered could don audio-visual equipment and connect with others around the world. Med students from Gaza City and Baltimore were able to sit down “face-to-face” and have real conversations about important topics and it didn’t involve any travel at all(5).

And a few more…

6. Solar-Powered Mobile Winery

7. Taco Stand

8. Classrooms for School Children

9. Swimming pools

Inspired? Here Is Some More Food for Thought

If you’ve been inspired by this list of creative uses for old shipping containers, you’ll be pleased to know there are many more. Every day, entrepreneurs and thinkers are dreaming up new uses for these remarkably versatile structures. Look around in your own city and we’re sure you can even think of a few yourself!

References:

1. https://www.billiebox.co.uk/facts-about-shipping-containers/
2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/06/27/qatar-world-cup-stadium-made-shipping-containers/740278002/
3. https://www.curbed.com/2018/6/22/17490502/cyptocurrency-mining-shipping-containers-nordcoin
4. https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/26/17449084/launcher-rocket-space-startup-engine-test-long-island
5. https://technical.ly/baltimore/2018/06/15/how-a-shipping-container-is-strengthening-cross-cultural-dialogue/

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