3 ms·

IIRC the US takes in more shipping containers than it sends out, so we have empty containers accumulating here.

by sethg 17y ago

stewiecat 17y ago
and you can see them by the thousands on US-1/9 in Newark just south of the Pulaski Skyway. They started piling up there when I was an undergrad in the area 10 years ago, and the pile just gets larger.
nfnaaron 17y ago
Wow, what a metaphor. I suppose we could get China to accept them for recycling.
- Tichy 17y ago
  That's probably another idea: to create containers from some material that makes it easy to reuse them as something else (if only burning for heat). That would safe a lot of shipping costs, too. Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships. It's not completely unthinkable: I think a lot of floats worked that way, like shipping stuff down rivers (where it wouldn't make sense to tow the floats upstream again). Why can't the containers ship themselves anyway? If they were autonomous robots with a GSM receiver, could become cost effective? Edit: this last idea excites me, actually. I would love to work on autonomous robot containers roaming the sea. Pirates might be the worst problem?
  - jhgfgbhn 17y ago
    They are made from a material that is easy to reuse - steel. In fact you can't make modern furnace steel without adding scrap steel to the blast furnace to control the temperature. The problem is that the floors of the containers are wood and to protect the farmers they are impregnated with some of the nastiest pesticides you can imagine - so no foreign bug can hitch a lift. Used containers are basically toxic waste, if you are reusing them for housing/storage/etc you are supposed to remove the floor, sandblast the inside and repaint everything in an EPA approved paint - which costs several times as much as the container.
    - Tichy 17y ago
      Uncomfortable thought, especially since probably everything we use has traveled in that toxic box. I wonder if it even make much sense - don't the bugs find a way to travel anyway?
      - jhgfgbhn 17y ago
        You're thinking logically - try thinking like a politician who has a lot of farmers in their constituency, or who belongs to a party where the first primary is in a farming state, or needs another politician from a farming state onside
  - sethg 17y ago
    Regarding containers that ship themselves, aside from the piracy issue, and making sure that the full container plus accessories was still buoyant, I suspect there are economies of scale that make it more fuel-efficient to gather thousands of containers on a single boat. (Now, a robotic sailboat... hmmm.) Some architects have designed houses made from recycled shipping containers: http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309 http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-con...
    - Tichy 17y ago
      Economics of scale: probably. But maybe there are also other factors. For example it seems impossible to power a large container ship with solar cells, but maybe for a smaller container-ship it would become feasible? Some not so urgent goods could perhaps just drift in the currents, too? No idea, though... I actually just had the other thought to call out a sort of X-Prize for the first autonomous robot ship that crosses the ocean. Or maybe it has already been done anyway.
    - LeChuck 17y ago
      Shipping containers are used for student housing where I live. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=damsterdiep+groningen&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=40.817312,78.837891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Damsterdiep,+Groningen,+The+Netherlands&ll=53.221513,6.58666&spn=0.000944,0.002406&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.221454,6.586476&panoid=Hm2V1mksbuwNgd4asWEq-Q&cbp=12,134.55,,0,-2.51 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...
  - jodrellblank 17y ago
    > Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete

IIRC the US takes in more shipping containers than it sends out, so we have empty containers accumulating here.

by sethg 17y ago

IIRC the US takes in more shipping containers than it sends out, so we have empty containers accumulating here.

and you can see them by the thousands on US-1/9 in Newark just south of the Pulaski Skyway. They started piling up there when I was an undergrad in the area 10 years ago, and the pile just gets larger.

nfnaaron 17y ago

Wow, what a metaphor. I suppose we could get China to accept them for recycling.

Tichy 17y ago
That's probably another idea: to create containers from some material that makes it easy to reuse them as something else (if only burning for heat). That would safe a lot of shipping costs, too. Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships. It's not completely unthinkable: I think a lot of floats worked that way, like shipping stuff down rivers (where it wouldn't make sense to tow the floats upstream again). Why can't the containers ship themselves anyway? If they were autonomous robots with a GSM receiver, could become cost effective? Edit: this last idea excites me, actually. I would love to work on autonomous robot containers roaming the sea. Pirates might be the worst problem?
- jhgfgbhn 17y ago
  They are made from a material that is easy to reuse - steel. In fact you can't make modern furnace steel without adding scrap steel to the blast furnace to control the temperature. The problem is that the floors of the containers are wood and to protect the farmers they are impregnated with some of the nastiest pesticides you can imagine - so no foreign bug can hitch a lift. Used containers are basically toxic waste, if you are reusing them for housing/storage/etc you are supposed to remove the floor, sandblast the inside and repaint everything in an EPA approved paint - which costs several times as much as the container.
  - Tichy 17y ago
    Uncomfortable thought, especially since probably everything we use has traveled in that toxic box. I wonder if it even make much sense - don't the bugs find a way to travel anyway?
    - jhgfgbhn 17y ago
      You're thinking logically - try thinking like a politician who has a lot of farmers in their constituency, or who belongs to a party where the first primary is in a farming state, or needs another politician from a farming state onside
- sethg 17y ago
  Regarding containers that ship themselves, aside from the piracy issue, and making sure that the full container plus accessories was still buoyant, I suspect there are economies of scale that make it more fuel-efficient to gather thousands of containers on a single boat. (Now, a robotic sailboat... hmmm.) Some architects have designed houses made from recycled shipping containers: http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309 http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-con...
  - Tichy 17y ago
    Economics of scale: probably. But maybe there are also other factors. For example it seems impossible to power a large container ship with solar cells, but maybe for a smaller container-ship it would become feasible? Some not so urgent goods could perhaps just drift in the currents, too? No idea, though... I actually just had the other thought to call out a sort of X-Prize for the first autonomous robot ship that crosses the ocean. Or maybe it has already been done anyway.
  - LeChuck 17y ago
    Shipping containers are used for student housing where I live. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=damsterdiep+groningen&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=40.817312,78.837891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Damsterdiep,+Groningen,+The+Netherlands&ll=53.221513,6.58666&spn=0.000944,0.002406&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.221454,6.586476&panoid=Hm2V1mksbuwNgd4asWEq-Q&cbp=12,134.55,,0,-2.51 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  > Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete