Ski Conditions

Copenhagen Trash Incinerator Doubles as Ski Resort

A Trashy Ski Resort?

Copenhagen is a flat city and probably not the first place you might think to go skiing. But the Bjarke Ingels Group of architects have come up with a novel way to provide the city's residents with access to some powder — by building a ski slope on the roof of a trash incinerator.

The Amager Bakke incinerator, which is under construction until 2017, is primarily a factory to convert waste material into energy. Its main function is to contribute to Copenhagen's goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025. Instead of simply disguising the exterior of the factory with an interesting design, the architects wanted to extend its function.

"We propose a new breed of waste-to-energy plant, one that is economically, environmentally, and socially profitable," said the Bjarke Ingels Group in a press release.

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Features of the Amager Bakke Incinerator

The ski slope will be open year round and will feature terrain for varying skill levels. In addition to a ski slope, the plant's roof will feature climbing walls, a forested area with hiking trails, a viewing plateau and a cafe.

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Waste Management and Recreation

But it's not just the skiing that's meant to get Copenhagen residents excited about the trash incinerator — the factory will also provide a boost of energy for the community. According to Wired, the plant will take in 400,000 tons of waste per year and produce heating for 160,000 households and electricity for 62,500 households.

Although the new plant will increase carbon-dioxide emissions from 140,000 tons a year to 200,000 tons, new technology will make the plant 25 percent more efficient, said National Geographic. The plant in Copenhagen will be a new addition to the hundreds of waste-to-energy plants already sprinkled across Europe, which incinerate a total of 73 million metric tons of waste each year.

Although the Copenhagen city government initially rejected the project because it will increase CO2 emissions, the architects countered that it would be an environmentally-friendly plant in the long term, reported Popular Science. The plant will even be equipped with a special smokestack that will release a circular ring of smoke for each ton of CO2 that's emitted as a reminder of the effects of consumption.

NEXT: More images of the incinerator