Vetrazzo Recycled Glass Countertops
19 July 2010
“Fanfare for the Common Man”
What’s old and new and blue and totally cool? Well, that would be the countertops we’re featuring in today’s blog, and as you can see from the many colors that we feature here, they are actually available in much more than the one color of blue. But the coolness factor is certainly there.
One of the things I find myself wondering about as I faithfully separate the cans and glass and newspaper from the rest of the trash is whether this is really accomplishing anything or not. Oh, I do know that there has been quite a bit of noise made in recent years about the virtues of recycling, but I’m one that pretty much has to see it to believe it.
Well, sir!
Vetrazzo Recycled Glass Surfaces is a company that has taken one of the more ubiquitous items of trash in this world, namely, glass, and put it to a new and different use. And done so with a considerable amount of flair and grace. I grew up in the 1950s, and as kids we used to collect pop bottles and beer bottles and sell them back to the grocery store for a penny apiece. Some of those bottles went back to the bottling companies where they were refilled, and others, I suppose, were ground up and made into new bottles. And that is about as much of recycling as I have ever seen with my own eyes.
Well, now we have a product that not only utilizes yesterday’s trash, but turns that trash into today’s treasures. Another thing I find particularly interesting about the product these people have put together is the innovation with which they have done so. On their website they state that every countertop has a story to tell, but then they go that one better. They have actually tracked the materials used in their countertops and will provide a Certificate of Transformation that tells you exactly where the glass in your Vetrazzo came from. Man, for those who are seriously into this recycling thing, that just has to be ultimate conversation item at the unveiling of a new kitchen.
But, in the end, no matter how environmentally wonderful a product may be, I for one, am not willing to live in a gray-oatmeal-like world in order to achieve that kind of bliss. Well, sir again! These countertops will add a wonderful splash of color to any room in which they reside. The other aspect of these countertops-of any countertop material, reall
y-is its practicality. For myself, I want something for a countertop that is going to hold up to everyday use, something I can use without an undue amount of maintenance, something that will look good and wear, if not at all, then so imperceptively that it seems to be not at all.
Well, as it turns out Vetrazzo has just the thing for that because their countertops wear like iron. All of the glass used in Vetrazzo is recycled, and because it makes up approximately 85% of the final material, the countertops themselves are plenty hard. Their biggest source of glass is the same neighborhood curbside recycling programs I once found myself questioning-but no more! Other glass used in these countertops comes from windows, drinking glasses, stemware, automotive glass, stained glass, laboratory glass, and reclaimed glass from building demolition. They have even sourced glass as esoteric as that from decommissioned traffic light lenses!
The end result compares very favorably with granite in strength, scratch resistance, thermal resistance, durability, and care and maintenance. So, if you were thinking about granite, you might want to consider Vetrazzo instead. One other element of the product that is certainly worth some discussion is the manufacturing process. We tend to think of granite as being green, which it is, because it’s not manufactured, and not, because it must be quarried. Where that gets to be a problem for people like me is learning that some sixty percent of the granite used in this country is now obtained from overseas, quarried by workers laboring under abhorrent working conditions in India, China, Turkey and Brazil to provide cheap granite for US consumption.
Vetrazzo, by way of decided contrast, is located here in the USA, in San Francisco, actually. They take pride in using only US-based raw materials and 100% US domestic labor that is paid a living wage. I remember living wages; I used to have one. And maybe if more of us bought American, those days would return. Be that as it may, though, we do now have a wonderful alternative to granite in the form of Vetrazzo. It’s pretty much a home run all around. You can add bling to your kitchen, be environmentally conscious, and strike a blow for the common man.
Joseph
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One Response to “Vetrazzo Recycled Glass Countertops”
July 19th, 2010 at 9:12 AM
Very interesting countertop material. I would imagine that you could also use it for outdoor applications as well.