Crossville Tile, Green and Getting Greener

Crossville claims to be the tile industry’s leader in sustainable initiatives. Perhaps it is. It cleans and returns waste-water used in manufacturing to its natural habitat. It uses natural gas, a cleaner burning, more efficient fuel and has instituted cleaner air practices both inside and outside its plants.

Crossville’s EcoCycle is the first porcelain tile with recycled content certified by SCS, an independent third party certifier of environmental claims. Its most recent introduction, Echo Recycled Glass Tile contains up to 100 percent recycled content, depending on color. (SCS certification pending.) Crafted by artisans, the Echo tiles are manufactured in an historic 1880s manufacturing facility in Ottawa, Illinois: the Peltier Glass Company. Renown for its production of stained glass for Louis Comfort Tiffany, as well as the collectible Peltier Glass Marbles, the factory is now creating recycled glass tile for the 21^st century.

In June Crossville announced a revolutionary tile take-back program. “With this program, Crossville has solved the major environmental problem facing the tile industry today – recycling used tile. Until now, pre- and post-consumer tile has been considered non-recyclable. While many tile manufacturers—including Crossville—have successfully reused scrap powders and unfired tile, hundreds of millions of pounds of damaged or otherwise unsellable-fired tile (tile in its finished state), have gone to landfills each year. Additionally, there has been no environmentally friendly manner to dispose of previously installed tile that has been removed for remodeling and renovation.

“Working with CEMCO, a company that specializes in the crushing of aggregate and recycled materials, Crossville has developed a proprietary system of processing ceramic and porcelain tile back into powder used in manufacturing new tile. The resulting new products will have a verifiable recycled content, and more than 4 million pounds of tile that Crossville has previously sent to local landfills will be recycled. This is in addition to any tile Crossville will receive through its ground-breaking tile take-back program.”

Bravo Crossville! Keep ‘em coming.