Giving a neglected object a secondary use after its primary one is over is a critical part of making our world sustainable. Shipping containers that end up not being in use can serve other roles instead of filling junkyards. There are various uses the 11 million unused shipping containers can help meet. Here are some unorthodox ideas on how you can give shipping containers new life as pop up containers.
1. Pop Up Retail Stores
In the retail world, an emerging trend that is reshaping what shoppers and entrepreneurs perceive retail to be is the pop-up store concept. As the name might imply, a pop up retail store is a mobile store that can be put up and taken down with ease from one area to another.
A brand can use pop up stores to take their products and services to a select region in a cost-effective manner. All you would need is to retrofit pop up containers to support the delivery of your brand experience. For online brands, the idea of using a customized shipping container to bring an offline experience to their customers is priceless.
Not only do you sidestep the substantial costs associated with a brick-and-mortar store, but you get a flexible way to shape new experiences with your customers that can reinforce their online journey with you.
Putting up temporary stores with pop up containers can also help a retail business test a market in a far most cost-effective manner and gauge the feasibility of launching operations.
2. Temporary Medical Facilities
Natural or medical disasters can strike at any time and in any area. When they do, medical and other emergency response teams must rush to contain the situation and limit and further damage. What of when a disaster or medical emergency occurs in areas that lack adequate (or any) medical facilities?
The solution, in such cases, is to deploy pop up containers as a way to build temporary medical and emergency centers that can execute their duties at a moment’s notice. It’s a boon that these modified shipping containers are made of metal which can protect any sensitive equipment and patients from insecure situations, flying debris, and other potential dangers.
After the earthquake hit Haiti, emergency medical and rescue centers made of shipping containers and retrofitted with solar power helped extend necessary services quickly.
3. Shopping Centers
Up and coming areas with transient populations might not be the ideal location for a developer to put up a large mall. However, as a developer, you nevertheless need to tap into the still growing area and grow your revenue stream.
Using several customized shipping containers to build a shopping center will help you take a bite out of the still-growing market in a cost-effective manner.
Additionally, should you test the area and find that its revenue is not as attractive, the custom shipping containers give you the flexibility to switch your location.
4. Above Ground Swimming Pool
What if you could introduce a swimming pool into your home in a day, without any digging? Well, now you can. In conjunction with a pool installation professional, you can place a custom shipping container into your backyard for the pool. Some of the outfittings the professional will have to do include adding liners, filters, ladders, heaters, and even some underwater lights.
Once this is done, the professional will pour the water and then deliver the pool to your home for installation. Such a pool will help you avoid the messy and expensive digging involved with setting up an inground pool. Not only that, converting the shipping container to a pool gives you the flexibility to take it down cheaply and with little mess should it become necessary.
Become Innovative
Many shipping containers lie unused today. Instead of letting them fill up scrap yards, you can get more value out of them by using them as pop up containers that serve not just you but others as well.