It looks like an ordinary factory workshop – hundreds of containers full of metal are being processed. People are hard at work sorting out the mountains of metal. It only becomes odd when you hear what’s being said. “This is full of prosthetic human hips, and that one there has the burned remains of artificial knees.”
Welcome to OrthoMetals, a company recycling metals from crematoria. Containers from all over Europe end up in the town of Zwolle to the northeast of Amsterdam. After a process involving magnets, conveyor belts and sorting by hand, the metals are stored in various bins. They go on to be sold to companies which will melt them down and give them a new lease of life. The crematoria are paid for the metal and give the money to charity.
