Repurposed shipping containers. The phrase itself stirs up a kind of romantic feeling, of vessels transporting goods across the oceans, going with or against the currents, delivering goods to distant lands, similar to the original explorers and the original merchants back a millennia ago.
Today, much of the world’s merchandise is still moved by ship across the ocean. This is because a ship or a barge has a great deal more handling capacity than an airplane. A barge runs the length of a Olympic track and field track sometimes and is capable of holding hundreds of shipping containers (or possibly thousands) on it.
And shipping containers, new or used, can be used for more than just shipping. Sure, they contain merchandise but later on they can be used for housing, for buildings, for even hotels. There are many uses for shipping containers, many of which involve both merchandise and buildings. But they can also be used for storage of other equipment as well.
There are some statistics worth noting about shipping containers. They are:
- A standard 20′ shipping container can hold 1,150 cubic feet, while a 40′ high cube contains 2,700 cubic feet.
- Shipping containers can last over 20 years, provided they are taken care of with regular paint and maintenance.
- Shipping containers, whether single units or multiple connected units, can withstand up to 100MPH winds when rooted on foundation, or 175MPH winds when anchored with pylons.
- Some estimates suggest that there are around 24 million empty, retired shipping containers on our planet. Most containers are retired after 10 to 15 years use.
- The containers are truly eco-green structures, made from 85% recycled steel and fully recyclable if demolished, and reusing them saves new building materials.
- Produced in one-fifth the time and at half the cost of site-built homes, manufactured housing assembled uses fewer materials and generates 35%-40% less waste.
- Reusing a single 40′ container upcycles about 3500kg of steel and saves about 8000 kWh that would otherwise be needed to melt it down.
- Building a housing structure out of a shipping container takes roughly 2-3 weeks. Brick and mortar structures take around 4-6 months to make.
- Container structures are inherently mobile, stackable, durable, weather-resistant, typically require no foundation and average a 25-year lifespan.
Those statistics tell a good part of the story. Repurposed shipping containers are used for offices, buildings, homes, hotels, and other types of buildings. They are used for these purposes because they inherently durable, sometimes lasted 25 years of longer without any kind of maintenance.
They are capable of withstanding gale force winds, extreme amount of hail, and other issues. They are good to be in when there is a tornado or if there is a hurricane. They are fire resistance, which makes them safer than wood when it comes to a fire. They can even be sexy in a certain light.
Repurposed shipping containers have positive qualities. They are easier to produce than other houses and can be produced much quicker than a house can be built. They are easy to transport to different locations, and can function well as storage units as well, in particular for medical supplies and equipment.
This is because they are resistant to the elements.
Repurposed shipping containers are powerful because they can challenge our conception on what a house means. For many, a house is made out of wood or brick, nailed together or sealed with cement. But a shipping container is a new type of house, capable of being more durable and weather resistant than the others.
There are some terms to know about repurposed shipping containers that are worth noting. They are shipping container office, shipping container solutions, modular housing, modular housing solutions pipeline, Conex, Conex containers, Conex containers for offices, container solutions, industrial shipping, and more.
Because there are many types of ways to use repurposed shipping containers, it may seem like they might be running out of them. But the truth is, that more and more companies still ship their goods across oceans and seas and they need shipping containers to put their merchandise in.
There are some very important points about this which are worth noting in the follow up article that well be written by a fellow writer most likely. They will likely go into more detail than this article. They will also likely have statistics.