Recycling Containers: It’s Not Just for the Little Stuff

Most of us have heard about recycling. We’re encouraged to use recycling containers to gather plastic bottles, glass jars, and aluminum cans as well cardboard boxes and newspapers. Some of us even recycle things like clothes and cars by buying them secondhand. We use our teabags more than once, and we use cloth diapers that can be washed and re-used. Yes, recycling is a part of our lifestyle. 

But all of those are little things – things we do on a small basis, individually. Wouldn’t it be great if recycling could be done on a larger scale, maybe even provide answers to serious problems? Guess what. It can and is being done on that level by many companies as part of a movement known as the green building movement. How are they doing it? By recycling large storage containers and using them as buildings. Yes, you read that correctly. They’re taking large storage containers and turning them into buildings.

What kind of buildings are we talking about? Let’s take a closer look and see:

• Starbucks – South of Seattle, Starbucks has opened up a drive-thru/walk-up-only store. Made out of four shipping containers, it’s the first of its kind for the company. The idea for it was inspired by a shipyard near the company’s headquarters and a desire to recycle containers similar to the ones that are used to transport the tea and coffee they use in their stores.
• Stockbox Grocers – Many people in urban areas live in places that have no easy access to fresh, affordable food. Wanting to change that, a group of people in Seattle came up with the idea of using shipping containers as small grocery stores. In July 2011, they chose to place their first container in a neighborhood where the nearest grocery store was a 45-minute bus ride away. The idea was successful. In August 2012, they placed another one in another neighborhood and are in the process of planning a third.
• BoxPark Shoreditch – Like many countries, Britain has experienced a recession in the last few years; and as a result many properties have sat empty and unused. In 2011, developers decided to use one of these properties for a rather unusual idea – a shopping center made out of shipping containers. The developers plan to eventually use the property for other things, but for now retailers are enjoying selling and customers are enjoying buying – all inside containers that used to travel around the world.

And the world of retail isn’t the only one making use of unused shipping containers. They’ve also been used in various parts of the world to build things like apartment buildings, student housing, luxury beach houses, playgrounds, swimming pools, offices and schools. All in all, an impressive bit of recycling.