Click to play videoWilmington (California): Massive trade deficit with China is not only threatening the US economy, it's creating urban blight in communities near US ports.
Mountains of empty shipping containers are piling up. There are so many, some people are beginning to live in them.
The stacks of shipping containers near the port of Los Angeles may soon be used to build your next house.
"This custom home is just over 3,000 square feet."
Architect Peter Demaria is designing homes out of shipping containers. They are pre-insulated, and already have hardwood floors. They are strong, resistant to mold, termites and fire. Above all they are plentiful.
"The cost of steel and the cost of concrete has gone through the roof recently and that forced us to explore some alternative materials," says Demaria.
China's voracious appetite for building materials has driven up costs of traditional construction. The nation's massive trade deficit with China and others has left hundreds of thousands of empty shipping containers piling up in storage yards all over the country.
So a growing number of architects and builders are using the container glut to save their clients hundreds of thousands of dollars. Custom home construction in southern California can easily cost $250 a square foot. The cardboard house is being built for about half that.
But the mountains of containers are a big problem for others.
Last year, Seven million containers arrived in California full of imported goods but only two and a half million left carrying American exports. Many of the rest are now polluting residential areas near the ports.
LA City Council Janice Hahn says, “This is the unintended consequence of really, the whole international trade industry, particularly because of the gap we have between imports and exports. It is a blight that I think no other community in America suffers."
Architect Demaria says recycling the containers for home construction will help improve the environment. He is also working with the city of Los Angeles to use shipping containers in low-income housing.
The city of Los Angeles recently passed a law banning the operation of new container storage yards near residential neighborhoods. The stacks of containers in some places means the sunsets an hour early.
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