Here in the United States and all throughout the world as a whole, shipping containers are quite important indeed. After all, shipping container usage is essential for, well, the shipping of various goods and products all throughout the country. In total, it has been estimated that there are currently as many as 17 million shipping containers currently in places all throughout the world.
However, up to 11 million of these shipping containers are simply being unused, even though many of them are still in good quality. With only about six million shipping containers actually in circulation for their originally intended purpose, the amount of shipping container waste that is currently going on is quite extreme indeed. Fortunately, there are many ways that these shipping containers are now able to be repurposed and giving new life, preventing them from simply sitting and gathering dust, doing nothing more than contributing to the growing waste problem that is faced by this world (and not just here in the United States).
More and more frequently, shipping containers are being used to create structures and buildings for people to inhabit and use. The shipping container studio, for instance, has become more and more popular. In addition to the shipping container studio, customized shipping containers can even be used to create homes for families as well as for single people. These shipping container structures, from the shipping container studio to the shipping crate restaurant, are ideal for a number of different reasons.
For one thing, they promote a great deal of waste reduction, something that is hugely necessary for the health and even for the survival of this planet – and all of us on it, too. Even recycling just one single shipping container and transforming it into something such as a shipping container studio can actually save as many as 3,500 kilograms of steel. Of course, this means that many thousand of thousands of tons of steel can be prevented from ending up in landfills, something that will ultimately be hugely beneficial for just about every single person on this planet.
The use of the custom shipping container, for a shipping container studio, shipping container home, or other shipping container structure, is also quite a bit more durable than the average person might think. As a matter of fact, the average shipping container can, when it is cared for well, last for as many as 25 years, which is considerably more than a full two decades. And though it is important to take care of any given shipping container structure like the shipping container studio (but certainly not limited to it), this care is relatively minimal (actually, considerably minimal) in comparison to the upkeep of the more traditional home.
Fortunately, the use of modified shipping containers have become more widespread than ever before all throughout the country and even the world as a whole. Aside from the creation of structures like the use of the typical shipping container studio, major corporate buildings have also been created through the use of shipping containers at various points in time. In fact, it is even thought by many that it was the company of Starbucks, a big national corporation, that pioneered the first uses of shipping containers as building materials.
History backs up this claim, showing that Starbucks opened a store made out of shipping containers back in the year of 2011, before the trend of shipping container construction was really able to take off. This store was about 450 square feet and was as fully operational as any of their other stores. In the years since, more and more people and companies have invested in shipping container buildings. After all, shipping container structures are not only very environmentally friendly, but they are quite inexpensive to construct as well, making it a win win for environment and business alike.
At the end of the day, we need to find more sustainable ways to build – and shipping container structures are just one way in which this can happen.
