Crossville Recycles 40 Million Pounds of Porcelain

Sponsored Content by Crossville

Since launching their Tile Take-Back® Program in 2009—the first recycling initiative of its kind in the industry—U.S. tile manufacturer Crossville, Inc. has diverted more than 40 million pounds of pre- and post-consumer fired-porcelain waste once destined only for landfills.

Through Tile Take-Back, Crossville collects both post-consumer (previously installed) tile from their distribution network, as well as scraps from tile cutting during sizing, sample creation and installation, to be recycled into fresh feed stock for new porcelain tile. A successful partnership established with international sanitary wares manufacturer TOTO USA in 2011 allowed Crossville to expand recycling programming to include pre-consumer fired porcelain toilets and other cast-offs that were formerly discarded for not meeting TOTO quality standards.

Using Crossville’s proprietary process, all 40 million pounds—and counting—of porcelain waste collected to date have been or are soon to be recycled; leading the Crossville, Tenn.-based company to maintain net waste consumption at its plants for the third year in a row. Crossville is the only manufacturer in the world to achieve net consumption of tile waste, meaning they recycle more than they produce. This not only reduces the impact on global landfills, but minimizes Crossville’s demand for new, raw materials for tile manufacturing. Today, every square foot of Crossville porcelain tile contains recycled content, thanks to the harvested material from TOTO. In 2013 alone, TOTO scrap porcelain contributed more than 7,288,860 lbs. of material for recycling into new Crossville tile.

In order to make their recycling efforts even more successful, Crossville’s Tile Take-Back Program gladly accepts post-consumer tile from other manufacturers, as well as projects not originating from Crossville. To learn more about the Tile Take-Back Program, their TOTO USA partnership, and Crossville’s other industry-leading sustainability initiatives, visit

www.CrossvilleInc.com

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