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.

Just for laughs, maybe one could even create throwaway ships.

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).

Why can't the containers ship themselves anyway? If they were autonomous robots with a GSM receiver, could become cost effective?

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?