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When Shipping Containers Sink in the Drink
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When Shipping Containers Sink in the Drink

We’ve supersized our capacity to ship stuff across the seas. As our global supply chains grow, what can we gather from the junk that washes up on shore?

Kathryn Schulz
The New Yorker, 2022
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Thousands of cargo ships sail the world’s oceans at any given moment. They ferry cheap goods manufactured in far-flung places and packed into large containers to satisfy consumers’ enormous appetite for disposable products. While only a small fraction of these containers end up in the ocean due to storms or accidents, as Kathryn Schulz reports for The New Yorker, their impact on the environment can be significant. Currently, few enforceable regulations mitigate the shipping industry’s negligence. Lost containers’ ocean-going detritus does have one upside: It helps oceanographers better understand currents.

Take-Aways

  • Modern cargo shipping methods date to the 1950s.
  • Ships lose cargo at sea frequently, but no one knows how many containers go overboard.
  • Investigators have no reliable way of knowing what lost containers actually contain.

About the Author

The New Yorker staff writer Kathryn Schulz won the Pulitzer Prize and a National Magazine Award, and wrote the memoir, Lost & Found.

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    R. E. 2 years ago
    Fascinating piece, although suspect there's not enough for a full book which would hold the readers attention