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A three-storey Edmonton apartment building is under construction using a material that’s often seen as waste — second-hand shipping containers.

The city’s first multi-family sea-can accommodations are being made of 48 steel containers pre-fabricated into modules at a Calgary factory, hauled north by truck, lifted into position by crane and welded into place.

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“I had been reading about it over the last few years. Everyone was saying you could get considerably lower cost, faster erection time and be part of a green solution,” says A.J. Slivinski, whose Step Ahead Properties is adding the new walkup at its Westgate Manor complex, 9560 163 St.

“We had the land, we were going to build something there, and we came across the shipping-container idea.”

Huge numbers of 40-foot-long containers arrive on the West Coast each year carrying the electronics, clothing, car parts and other products North Americans import from Asia. But most aren’t sent back because it’s cheaper to make new ones, Slivinski said Thursday.