Carissa Ten Tije
designer
Carissa Ten Tije
The best thing that can happen to trash – The Bottom Ash programme
Recycling plays an ever more important role in the work of designers. Nowadays it is vital, a most fundamental element of a designer’s way of thinking responsibly.There are many exciting examples for reprocessing paper, metals, textiles or even leftover food, but substantially fewer ones for recycling mixed household waste that is generated every single day. In Europe a significant proportion of municipal waste still ends up on landfills. A smaller proportion is incinerated to generate electricity. One residue of incineration is bottom ash. There haven’t really been experiments regarding the usability of this ash, although a single Dutch one-person household generates almost 60 kilos of it in a year. Carissa Ten Tije offers a progressive special/unique way to repurpose this lifeless gray mass as a secondary raw material. Modular segments were pressed from the ash and were used to make this stone bench. Although it hints at the ash from whence it came with its colour and terrazzo-like texture, it appears fresh and impressive.
The creation of the bench was preceded by thorough research into the topic, the results and observations of which were compiled by the designer in a useful publication.
