Fireclay Turns Toilets Into Tiles

Published December 29, 2010

SAN JOSE, CA — With the recent addition of recycled porcelain, ceramic tile maker Fireclay Tile has developed products with more than 70 percent recycled content.

The Northern California-based company has been using recycled material in some of its products for the past 15 years, and is now upping the amount of trashed materials in its Debris Series and Express Series tiles.

For the past year, Fireclay has been working with local recyclers to identify and get a hold of waste porcelain, like toilets, they could grind down into material to add to their tiles.

Fireclay was able to buy 150 tons of porcelain from Recology in San Francisco and Zanker Road Resource Management in San Jose, adding onto the other waste glass, granite dust and abrasive materials it's been using in its tiles.

"When I first started approaching people to see if I could purchase their waste materials they thought I was crazy," Fireclay founder and chief ceramicist Paul Burns said in a recent Fireclay newsletter. "Now that we have demonstrated success, those conversations have become easier."

Fireclay is now looking for other recycling partners from Oakland to Los Angeles and anywhere else in California.

_{Image - Debris Series tiles}

This article inspired me to

Justine (not verified), January 5, 2011 - 22:56

This article inspired me to write about Fireclay's sustainability model on my own blog- www.bluegranola.com. Come check it out! :)

Sounds nice and green but I

russ (not verified), January 3, 2011 - 08:20

Sounds nice and green but I wonder how much more energy is consumed in collecting, sorting and grinding up the old material - to end up with a slightly contaminated feed stock?

Thanks for the comment on

Eric Edelson (not verified), January 7, 2011 - 14:54

Thanks for the comment on feedstock. I guess our point in doing this is there is a demand for tile and raw materials are generally extracted from the earth and processed to make ceramic tile. In California, we get clay from the Sacramento area. By looking locally to waste materials like waste porcelain we can find an already great raw material and process it to make tile. It is currently being processed for road fill or land fill anyway, so the added processing is little extra. As far as contamination, we fire tiles at over 1800 degrees so there is no contamination risk. ANd the end product will last forever.

Regardless, thanks for keeping the discussion going!

Eric, Fireclay Tile

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Fireclay Turns Toilets Into Tiles