These tiles really are made from recycled toilets, and they look beautiful—enough, in fact, to be featured in California restaurants and Whole Foods juice bars.
The Debris Collection is available in more than 112 colors and is made from over 70 percent recycled materials, more than 50 percent of that post-consumer waste.
The manufacturing company, Fireclay Tile, says that by working with recyclers in San Francisco and San Jose, the company will take more than 150 tons of porcelain waste out of the landfill.
Fireclay is no stranger to recycling unusual materials into tiles. The company has used locally-sourced would-be waste materials, such as glass, granite dust (from a nearby quarry), and spent abrasive materials, for 15 years.
And a nearby landfill that sends so much of its waste overseas for recycling was happy to have a local market for recycling its waste porcelain. (Learn more from an NPR story on the tiles.)
Watch how it's done:
GreenBiz dug up this quote from Fireclay founder and chief ceramicist Paul Burns: "When I first started approaching people to see if I could purchase their waste materials they thought I was crazy... Now that we have demonstrated success, those conversations have become easier."
