The Unintended Consequences of Containerization
The freight container, invented in 1956 by Malcolm McLean, was designed to increase the efficiency of loading and transporting cargo for trade. Before shipping containers, goods and products were transported in barrels and boxes manually by crews from ships to trucks and trains. This was a timely process, taking workers days to transport cargo into transport vessels. Cargo would often wait at ports for far longer than the length of their intended travel time, which did not encourage trade across seas. Until the shipping container was widely used in the 1980s, trade and production remained primarily regional. With the standardization of freight containers, the time taken to unload and reload cargo was diminished, and transporting freight became the most efficient way of transporting products. This increased efficiency in transportation contributed to the intertwining of world economies as it made the flow of goods and materials swifter, helping to facilitate globalization.
However, the efficiency that containerization brought had rebound effects. As Dr. Ruzzenenti and Dr. Basosi describe in their research paper “The rebound effect: An evolutionary perspective,” with increased efficiency, the frequency and distance of shipping increased as well. Although the transportation of cargo was made more efficient, the subsequent cargo transport demanded increased substantially, offsetting the anticipated positive effects of energy and transport efficiency. Additionally, Ruzzenenti and Basosi explain that containerization encouraged firms to outsource production, boosting international trade and decreasing regional trade. Production chains quickly became scattered throughout the world, increasing traffic density of vehicles that facilitated that trade. Moreover, local and national economies quickly relied on international networks of trade, making local or regional production reliant on outsourced labor and resources, and often unable to survive without global production chains.
Although imperative to the growth of the world economy in recent decades, containerization has had a number of unintended consequences. Since containers were introduced they have become the main vessel of trade, with an estimate of over 80% of world trade taking place at sea. With the shipping sector emitting 13% of global greenhouse gases per year, this mode of transport has clear damaging effects on the environment. Importantly, the effects of this pollution disproportionately impact marginalized communities as ports are often surrounded by low-income communities. Shipping traffic also has negative impacts on marine eco-systems, with an estimated 10,000 metric tons of plastic released into the ocean every year.
The global economy is reliant on freight containers to facilitate trade, something that does not appear be decreasing any time soon. Because this invention was so revolutionary to global economies it will continue to be used, despite the harmful effects it has had on populations and environments. There have been some attempts by the international community protect marine biodiversity and decrease carbon emissions to get to carbon neutrality by 2050, but it many changes to port infrastructure, a transition to cleaner fuels, and international cooperation.
