Christien Meindertsma - Bottom Ash Observatory

Following a tour through the largest and most energy-efficient waste-to-energy plant in the world, Dutch artist and designer Christien Meindertsma became intrigued with the dark residue leftover by the process of incinerating municipal solid waste. Using a 25-kilo sample of raw bottom ash, as it is called, she demonstrates the rich properties and versatility of this resource by successfully gleaning numerous materials from it by hand – among them valuable reusable ones such as zinc, aluminium, copper, and silver. Meindertsma commissioned photographer Mathijs Labadie to document every step of this exhaustively precise process in a surprisingly scientific inquiry.