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From Italy: Recycled Tile Wallpaper

Our first stop on day one of our week of tile-mania at Cersaie was at the booth of tile manufacturer Trend, an Italian company that makes enamel, quartz, granite and glass tile. Their space was decked out with green glass bottles—a symbol of their commitment to environmentally-responsible practices, which includes maintaining a team of researchers who track the company's environmental footprint and look for new technologies to improve their production process. Their dedicated website, Trend in Green, explains some of their practices in greater depth.

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We were greeted by Trend's "green guru," Marcello Becchi, who introduced one of the company's new products: recycled glass tile wallpaper, which can be seen in these photos. The large strips of mosaic tiles, each measuring just under one square inch, are available in a variety of colors and patterns and made from a minimum of 80 percent post-consumer waste.

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Probably the most progressive sustainability tactic Becchi presented is his goal of implementing a corporate take-back program, whereby consumers could remove wallpaper pieces and return them to the company when they're ready for a change or need a replacement. This would effectively close the loop on the product itself, and with the company making moves internally to reduce and reuse the water necessary for manufacture, such programs would take them toward a cyclical production process, with the added benefit of allowing customers to take advantage of new styles and trends without creating waste. Goals such as these make clear that a company views sustainability with a wide lens, looking at internal operations, customer connection, material selection, and new ways to link those things together to keep things moving forward.
trendtile.

  • Published: October 6, 2009

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