While our State and Commonwealth Governments have been trying to encourage bio-tech and advanced manufacturing companies through R&D tax concessions and commercialisation grants, it’s possible they have overlooked more prosaic companies that can generate practical innovations, such as Mackay’s Shipping Container Rentals. Mackay’s Daily Mercury reports (Introducing ‘The Pissa’):

MACKAY men can kiss goodbye the days of ‘watering the grass’ behind the shed thanks to ‘The Pissa’, a shipping container converted into what is believed to be Mackay’s first portable male toilet block.

Shipping Container Rentals created the aptly named toilet block by modifying a six-metre shipping container to include four mirrors, four hand basins and windows, two urinary troughs and two doors.

The Mackay-based company’s sales and leasing manager Murdo Macdonald says the Pissa is the perfect accompaniment to the popular 15-person Chillroom container, which can also be rented for parties and other events.

Let’s hope Shipping Container Rentals gets a Smart State Award in the near future.

By the way, according to Wikipedia there are a number of other uses for retired shipping containers:

Shipping container architecture is the use of containers as the basis for housing and other functional buildings for people, either as temporary housing or permanent, and either as a main building or as a cabin or workshop. Containers can also be used as sheds or storage areas in industry and commerce.

Containers are also beginning to be used to house computer data centers, although these are normally specialized containers.