They are virtual miniature cities, rising up to seven storeys and growing as quickly as Melbourne's apartment towers. But they house nothing but air, and a group representing the western suburbs says they are doing too much damage.
More than 10,000 shipping containers a day are whipped around Melbourne's inner west on the back of trucks, and almost half are empty – bound for a dozen empty-container parks dotted around Yarraville, Brooklyn and West Footscray.
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Shipping containers are becoming mini-hydro plants
They were once a way to store or transport, now they're helping generate renewable power for Melbourne homes.
"Our second-biggest export in Australia is empty containers," says Peter Anderson, chief executive of freight group the Victorian Transport Association.
In January, 92,000 containers were exported from Melbourne, and 40 per cent were empty.
"It's a ridiculous situation," says Craig Rowley, of lobby group LeadWest.
The group has identified the main routes on which the empty containers travel to and from the port. It is demanding action to reduce their numbers and stop the expansion of empty-container parks.
The group wants a long-promised rail shuttle from the port built to help get empty containers off the roads. The Western Interstate Freight Terminal in Truganina has been considered by successive state governments, but is no closer to being a certainty.
Roads Minister Luke Donnellan says the government is evaluating a range of options for inland facilities such as Truganina, and this year will release a new freight strategy that has considered these investigations.
The container parks have grown outside the Port of Melbourne because land next to it has become expensive. About 70 per cent of empty containers are stored away from the port. But empty containers can't stray too far from the port because they are used to "top up" departing ships and are usually the last items to be loaded. So empty-container parks have congregated around the inner west.
The state's main exports, such as agricultural produce, leave in sturdy 20-foot containers, but imports – usually much lighter – are accommodated in 40-foot containers. This creates a massive imbalance that results in empty 20-foot containers being shipped back into the port, while empty 40-foot containers are returned to the countries that make our clothes, white goods, TVs and flat-pack kitchens.
About 2.7 million containers passed through the Port of Melbourne last year – up from 1.9 million a decade ago. Most of the containers are owned by the shipping lines.
The trucking industry agrees there are too many empty containers being circulated. Because moving empty containers provides slim profit margins, the trucks used are often old or the cheapest available – not great PR for the freight industry.
The drivers transporting the empty containers are also among the worst paid in the trucking industry, earning $25 to $50 per container delivered.
"These carriers are in a hurry because they get paid by container, so they go fast," says Mr Anderson .
While freight groups agree there is a problem, they don't agree a freight terminal outside the centre is the solution.
Neil Chambers, of Container Transport Alliance Australia, says the idea that building a rail freight terminal in Truganina will help remove trucks from the inner west is incorrect.
Trucks will continue to dominate because they are so convenient for transport, he says.
Rail can't provide the immediacy the shipping lines need to get containers on board rapidly, he says, and the freight terminal that has long been proposed is for interstate trade.
Mr Chambers said the empty container problem was largely due to the changing nature of Victoria's trade.
"We're becoming a nation of warehousers," said Mr Chambers. "As manufacturing declines, imports have increased. And if it's being moved by a truck and a container, it will have an empty container that has to be managed at the end."