SHIPPING PLASTIC CONTAINERS:A DUTCH entrepreneur has invented a collapsible plastic container to help cargo ships returning empty from China reduce their fuel and carbon consumption.

René Giesbers, a former heating engineer, saw the design would also help reduce costs in other ways since four empty containers could be loaded onto a ship at a time. In addition, it would reduce the space taken up by empty containers at ports, thereby increasing their capacity.

Four collapsible containers could also be carried in the place of one conventional steel container on trucks or trains.

Their manufacture is also less carbon intensive. The carbon footprint of a composite plastic container is a quarter of that of a steel one. Plastic containers are also less vulnerable to corrosion. There is also potential to make the containers out of recycled plastic or bioplastics.

Given these combined benefits, they could be carbon neutral or reduce carbon emissions by more than their own carbon footprints.