This Company Turns Containers Into Swimming Pools
Shipping containers are used to move almost everything including, clothing, cellphones, and home appliances across the sea. Many of them are single-use and only make one trip because they are not needed. Modpools, from Vancouver, Canada is recycling them into swimming pools.
Modpools was established in 2017 after owner- Paul Rathnam came up with the unique idea to turn these gently used shipping containers into swimming pools according to Fast Company. He noticed on a family vacation that pools were getting smaller. That’s when the lightbulb went off.
He was already doing single conversions of containers into usable space like offices but it was a one-off projects. Now, Modpools does this large scale.
But why shipping containers? “They’re basically the world’s cardboard boxes,” Rathnam told Fast Company. “They take all of our cargo around the world, safely. And, they’re reusable.”
When Rathnam decided to change his focus to pools, he began buying shipping containers that only made a single trip across the Pacific so they wouldn’t be banged up from multiple use. They are not needed for return trips due to the trade deficit with China.
While some have been converted into indoor farms, schools, or housing for the homeless like those built by Flyaway homes in California. The company repurposed shipping containers into a supportive housing complex. The units cost one quarter of the price of conventional housing and was completed in a fraction of the time.
Otherwise, most shipping containers were just rusting away. “Turning them into something that you can use for 30 years on your property [is] probably the best form of recycling we can do,” Rathnam told Fast Company.
Modpools has gained in popularity due to the pandemic because people are spending more time at home reported Interesting Engineering and they are economical and easy to install. The company is building them across Canada and the US.
The containers are built as modular space and 20-by-8-foot (6.1-by-4-meter) or 40-by-8-foot (12.2-by-4-meter) containers are cut down to the custom size and shape that are needed and they can also be made wider using leftover steel from another project according to Fast Company.
The swimming pools can usually be installed in a day in ground or above ground. Some of the pools have added windows so people can see inside all the way to the bottom. Some people are even installing a dual pool-hot tub combination.
This out-of-the-box solution to recycle or upcycle single-use items like shipping containers could help keep waste out of landfills and oceans. it’s an easy way to green the planet one shipping container at a time.
