With a majority of the population looking for Eco-Friendly ways to contribute, live as well as survive, a lot of people are looking into these options to upgrade and even modernize their home using recycled materials such as recycled tiles. Recycled tiles originate from materials discarded in landfills such as porcelain toilets, tubs, sinks as well as various other construction materials like glass and concrete. Choosing to use recycled tile over conventional tile offers more unique options that you will not find anywhere else. Recycled tile can be used for floors, counter tops and walls. 

Recycled Tile Options –  (Source: Mother Earth News): Recycled-content tile can be used for floors, counter tops and walls, and may be made from either recycled glass or wastes from mines or factories. Tiles come in two varieties — ceramic and glass. Ceramic tiles may be made from factory waste (known as post-industrial waste) generated by the production of conventional tiles. Some manufacturers, such as Crossville, produce tiles that contain 50 percent to 100 percent in-house manufacturing waste — waste that would otherwise have ended up in landfills.

Crossville announces latest recycling program milestones – (Source – Tile Magazine): Crossville Inc., a domestic porcelain tile manufacturer based in Crossville, TN, has diverted a total of 24 million pounds of porcelain from landfills since launching its Tile Take-Back® program and Toto USA recycling partnership. Both initiatives are based on Crossville’s proprietary process for recycling fired porcelain products, including post-consumer materials.

Between both Tile Take-Back® and the Toto USA partnership, Crossville achieved the following in 2012:

• recycled more than 5,550,354 pounds of fired tile produced at the company’s plants that would have previously gone to landfills
• received and processed more than 60,560 pounds of tile, including scraps and post-consumer tile extracted from renovation projects and
• received and recycled more than 6,669,834 million pounds of scrap porcelain from Toto.

Since the launch of Tile Take-Back® in 2009, the company’s cumulative recycling totals include:

• more than 10 million pounds of fired tile produced at Crossville’s plants
• 220,000 pounds of scrap and post-consumer tile
• 13.7 million pounds of scrap porcelain from Toto USA.

PlumbTile.com offers several brands that offer recycled tile options. Below are just a couple with examples:

Interstyle Ceramic & Glass –  Based in beautiful British Columbia, Interstyle is known for its fine glass and ceramic tiles for bathroom, kitchen and swimming pools.

Interstyle is also known for its extraordinary architectural tile collections. The company creates several styles of tile including lines that use 100% recycled materials.

Coverings Etc. Natural Stone Tile and Surfacing –

Coverings, Etc. is a manufacturer of environmentally friendly and engineered stone surface materials, as well as natural stone products, made to satisfy traditional, contemporary and classic design projects. Their product lines are named Bio-Glass, Eco-Terr, Eco-Cem, Eco-Gres and Bio-Luminum, and they also provide natural stone products. A member of the United States Green Building Council, Coverings, Etc. seeks environmentally friendly materials and design solutions for projects with sustainable bioarchitecture incentives. Their products are naturally occurring, recycled or manufactured with concern for the conservation of natural resources and include products made with recycled glass and terracotta, recycled aluminum and natural stone.

PlumbTile is dedicated to promoting Eco-Friendly, GREEN technology brands and services. From Energy and Water Saving to Recycling, shop GREEN and SAVE, plus help support Green Causes.