Recycling is a good thing, no doubt about it, but it can be a bit of a pain in the pants at times. Separating your metal from your glass, lugging out different bags to the bin in the lashing rain, the judgemental looks from the neighbours about the number of wine bottles you’re trying to cram in to one small box. However, the next time you find yourselves cursing the council’s refuse collection policy, remember you may be helping the arts as well as saving the planet.

French photographer Thomas Mailaender put photography students from the ever-brilliant ECAL Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne to work on creating the exhibit Junk Museum – their challenge was to turn five tons of trash into something worth seeing, while learning about scenography and installation. You can see what they came up with at the Swiss institute’s Stefan Kudelski Hall until 8th May, when it presumably goes back in the bin.

Photo ECAL/Roshan Adhihetty,
Sabrina Gruhne,
Manon Wertenbroek

Photo ECAL/Jean-Vincent Simonet

Photo ECAL/Sabrina Gruhne

Photo ECAL/Maxime Guyon,
Steven Mazzola

Photo ECAL/Aliénor Held,
Sonia Parani, Laura Rimayati,
Julie Strasser

Photo ECAL/Anaïs Boileau,
Laurence Rasti