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.<p>Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships.<p>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).<p>Why can't the containers ship themselves anyway? If they were autonomous robots with a GSM receiver, could become cost effective?<p>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?