Crossville Begins Tile Recycling Program

Crossville, TN, June 29, 2009—Crossville has begun a tile take-back program to recycle used tile.  (See last week's Floordaily interview with Frank Douglas of Crossville.)

Until now, post-industrial 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 tile in its finished state have gone to landfills each year.

Also, 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 to manufacture new tile.

The 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 receives through its take-back program.

Not only will the new process allow Crossville to repurpose its own scrap tile, but will allow the company to take back samples and installed tile.

Crossville has already begun to incorporate powder produced from recycled tile in its manufacturing process and expects to begin accepting tile through its take-back program later this summer. Additional details about the tile take-back program will be announced on Crossville’s Web site www.crossvilleinc.com in the coming weeks.