There are hundreds of thousands of empty,
Shipping container sales companies have been applauded by environmental groups because reusing the containers prolongs their useful lives. No further mining of metals is needed in order to reuse the shipping container and the insulation and other additions to the container can often be done with recycled materials too. Furthermore, reusing the containers for office space or housing reduces the need for other materials such as timber making it a very green choice for building with.
How can you reuse a shipping container?
In the past few years shipping containers sales have increased manyfold. Reusing containers is a very effective way in which people are able to reduce the environmental impact that shipping has on the global environment, a
Used shipping containers are being remodelled and put to use in the following ways:
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Mobile offices
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Warehouse space
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Storage
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Housing
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Mobile bathrooms and showers
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Canteens
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Classrooms
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Public relations and art installations
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Mobile offices and showrooms
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… and can even continue moving freight!
Environmental benefits of recycling containers
There are a range of specific environmental benefits in reusing and repurposing shipping containers. Many will help your costs too.
The first case where the environment and your bank account will both benefit is in using them as building blocks for a house, apartment, office or extension. They can be fitted out in a yard or factory and are extremely competitive in man-hours for overall construction of a home. In saving man-hours so you are saving energy in construction.
Cement costs a tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne produced. Shipping container architecture requires a lot less cement and concrete to build than a bricks-and-mortar building.
When a container’s useful life is over it will be chopped up and melted down for recycling. Recycling in this way, while better than using ores to make new steel, is still less sustainable than using the container as a building thanks to the energy required in cutting it up, transporting and melting it down. Reusing the container could in theory ‘store’ the carbon used in making the container for 100 years or more as a building remains in place.
Another benefit of a used container is that it is cheaper than a new one yet will continue to be in good condition (with light maintenance) for many years. If you look after the seals and keep the rust at bay you could have a container in service for 10 years or more that had been in use for five years when you bought it.
Green container architecture
Many people going for a container-based building will be thinking along the lines of an eco-home that is carbon neutral or carbon-negative (taking more carbon out of the atmosphere than it uses). There are a number of ways to make your container home even more sustainable. These include:
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Solar and wind energy installations to generate your own electricity
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Heavy insulation to ensure you minimise heating/cooling inside
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Growing your own food on site
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Grey water irrigation where your non sewage water is used to irrigate your crops
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Rainwater collection where you use rainwater to wash clothes, irrigate crops etc
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Composting toilets
With these concepts and others in mind you can claw back much of the energy used to build your shipping container home and have a lighter footprint on the planet.
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