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Crossville to Launch Tile Take-Back Program

Using a proprietary method, the company will repurpose unusable and fired tiles from both crossville and other tile companies.

-- Interior Design, 6/16/2009 12:00:00 AM

Laurie Lyza, Crossville director of marketing; photo by Mary Clare Glabowicz.

Most everyone tries to identify that moment when they can pay it forward, the idea of showing gratitude for good fortune by bestowing good deeds on others. For tile manufacturer Crossville, however, good deeds are about taking back. Like the textile industry that has successfully developed take-back programs to recycle reclaimed materials, Crossville has gone beyond existing tile-industry recycling programs for unfired materials and developed a take-back program for unusable and previously used fired tiles.

“We’ve been researching this process for nearly ten years,” says director of marketing Laurie Lyza. “Technology finally caught up with our goals.”

The innovation is the result of partnership with mining company Cemco. The proprietary method can be used to repurpose not only Crossville products, but those from other companies. Rolling out this summer, all Crossville tile will employ some percentage of recycled content, keeping more than four million pounds of tile from going to landfill.