When we talk about waste and recycling, we tend to think about items that have come to the end of their first use and that are then collected, sorted and either found a new owner where they are reused or they are broken down or processed to produce reusable materials … so glass from a bottle bank or newspapers and magazines used to make new paper.

But this exhibition is about the material left over from the manufacturing process after the factory has cut out or cut off what it needs.

In this age of carefully-calculated profit margins, something like, for instance, metal tubing from the steel mills will come in a standard length and anything shorter will actually cost more for less as that processing adds to the time and cost of production. Manufacturers will then cut what they need from a standard length and the off cut - still basically new material - can be sold on as “new waste” to a company that can make use of those smaller pieces.

This exhibition has been developed with THE UPCYCL - an association with bases in Aarhus and Copenhagen - that puts together manufacturers with new waste and companies that can use that waste.

Det Kongelige Akademi / the Royal Academy, now has a Materialebutikken or Materials Shop where students can select New Waste material supplied by members of THE UPCYCL for design projects.

The exhibition includes stools from Anno Studio that are made from off-cuts of steel tubing that are left over from the manufacture of industrial trolleys by Ravendo A/S; the Rhomeparket flooring system from WhyNature made from the waste from the primary production from Wiking Gulve and a shelving system from Studio Mathias Falkenstrøm based on leftover materials from JEVI, Ravendo & VTI.

It is easy to miss the exhibition as it is in the City Gallery at the Architecture Center …. the exhibition space that is under the main staircase that takes visitors up from the bookshop to the main exhibition galleries.

Sikke st spild / What a waste
7 June 2023 - 29 October 2023

Dansk Arkitektur Center / Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10
1473 København K

THE UPCYCL
New Waste materialebørs / New Waste material exchange