Four designers from London's Royal College of Art have recycled the toxic red mud residue from aluminium production to make a series of terracotta-hued cups, bowls and teapots.
The project aims to find the value in "waste" by recycling the industrial by-product into a sustainable alternative to raw materials.
Guillermo Whittembury, Joris Olde-Rikkert, Kevin Rouff and Luis Paco Bockelmann began studying the potential of secondary resources, in a bid to realign our perception of waste.
The project, called From Wasteland to Living Room, saw the designers transform red mud into different functional ceramic tableware pieces such as cups, bowls, plates, vessels and teapots.

Red mud, also known as bauxite tailings, is a by-product of refining bauxite ore into alumina to make aluminium. The material mainly consists of iron oxide, which grants it a vibrant, rusty colour. For every tonne of alumina produced, the process can leave behind as much as two tonnes of red mud, which is highly alkaline and hard to neutralise.
"Upwards of 150 million tonnes of red mud are produced every year, enough to stack in industrial barrels six times to the moon," the designers explained.
"Currently, it is left unused in giant pits around the world," they added. "While these make for beautiful satellite images, the environmental costs are a given."

The group wanted to find a better use for this toxic by-product, while also making people aware of the impact of...