Recycled Glass tiles

There has been a huge effort for communities to establish and promote recycling programs to help keep some of the glass out of the landfills. Most glass recycling is used in products that are not seen from the naked eye. For example recycled glass is used in asphalt for roadways, insulation for your home, backfill for construction projects and even in some reflective paint.The up and coming area for the use of recycled glass is in recycled glass tiles.

Most companies who are producing recycled glass tiles are using anywhere from 30% up to 100% post consumer waste of glass.Recycled glass tiles are produced by melting down waste glass or unusable glass in a heated furnace in which the temperature will exceed over 2000 F. The molten glass is then stamped or poured into their appropriate mold, hand trimmed and even ground down to its form. The beauty of the recycled glass is that the variations in each tile is what gives it the their distinct characteristics.

Glass tiles can be used anywhere normal ceramic tiles would be installed. Recycled glass tiles have the benefit of being resistant to chemical and stains which makes it nice to be used in wet areas. Recycled Glass tiles can be used on floors, walls, backsplashes, countertops, tabletops and among other areas in your home.The thing to remember about the recycled glass, is that about 80% of the glass tiles are transparent.

This means when you are installing the glass tiles, make sure your background(area of installation) is painted white. When using your thinset(which you want to use white), you want to use a very small trowel for installation. This helps to eliminate the trowel marks that could be visible after the installation. The smaller the trowel the better. When using a smaller trowel, you press the glass tile mosaic it will flatten down the trowel and give it a smoother, cleaner look and install.The color choices for recycled glass tiles are growing every year. They even have solid, matte, iridescent, and clear colors available. Using recycled glass tile in your home is a way to add color and beauty and also a way for you to help out our environment and keep some of the glass out of our landfills.

To view some beautiful glass tiles and available colors visit: www.mytilebacksplash.com/recycledglass.aspx