What Do Old Beer Bottles And Toilets Have In Common?
Gone are the days of sacrificing elegance and function for sustainability; eco-friendly countertops combine beauty with green. Countertop surfaces that contain recycled materials and have many green properties are now available. They have many advantages such as low VOCs (volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde) and long life expectancy; many are even readily recyclable at the end of their tenure as your countertop. In keeping with the eco-friendly movement, recycled glass and mirror is used in quartz and glass countertops with unique looks and stunning outcomes. You can choose countertops embedded with sapphire blue, ruby red, amber or bottle green glass accents that look like precious stones. Also available are solid glass countertops which come in a range of beautiful colours and can be lit from underneath. 

So what do old beer bottles and toilets have in common?

Both products can be downcycled into beautiful new countertops- diverting waste from landfills and protecting the environment.

These materials are most often found in Eco-friendly composite countertops. Composite countertops are the most popular choice of green consumers. These surfaces are made from a collection of materials (most notably quartz) and are formed into slabs for use in the kitchen, bathroom, and virtually any area of your home. Composite and recycled countertops offer many environmental benefits, including:




  • Saving water, with up to 98% of water used being used to process these materials being recycled. 
  • Creating new life cycles for post consumer items such as: glass from windows and bottles and porcelain from dinnerware, tiles, sinks, toilets and decorative elements found in housewares.
  • Recycled composite countertops make use of post-industrial materials such as: mirrors from houses, building and factories; granulated glass from consumer recycling practices as in the case of end of life beer bottles; and industrial furnace residuals from factories in the form of crystallized ashes.
  • The materials found in these eco-friendly counters can be bound with environmentally friendly resins or concrete rather than epoxies.
  • They emit low VOCs in comparison with natural stone.
  • They resist bacteria growth.
  • A countertop may be recyclable at the end of its life.
  • Green choices are most often C2C-certified, GreenGuard and/or NSF Certified.

The appeal of recycled countertops is that they offer a more eco-friendly alternative to standard stone countertop choices. While indoor air quality is a major concern for consumers and fabricators of countertops alike, eco-friendly countertops do more than just improve indoor air quality by reducing VOCs. Choosing a countertop which involves green material selection, green manufacturing processes, a green supply chain and