Cosentino, www.cosentinonorthamerica.com Hartness International, www.hartness.com RKW US Inc., www.rkwus.com |
Though it looks like ordinary stone kitchen countertop, a new line of material contains 75% recycled content. Called ECO, the material by stone manufacturer Cosentino, Stafford, Tex., includes mirrors salvaged from houses, buildings, and factories; glass from windows and bottles; granulated glass from consumer recycling practices; porcelain from china, tiles, sinks, toilets, and decorative elements; and industrial furnace residuals from factories in the form of crystallized ashes.
The recycled content is mixed with 25% natural material including stone scrap from mountains, quarries, manufacturing, and fabrication. The components get bonded together with a proprietary eco-friendly resin comprised in part of corn oil and resin. The result, says the company, is a hard durable surface that has high stain, scratch, and scorch performance. Unlike more traditional materials, it is nonporous and does not require sealers.
Cosentino says ECO closely matches the durability of quartz surfaces and performs better than more conventional materials such as granite and marble. The production of ECO is expected to reuse the equivalent of 60 million glass bottles annually.