Wausau's Terrazzo Tile Made from Recycled Glass

More than 13 million tons (13.2 million tonnes) of glass are generated annually in the U.S., which keeps its price—currently about $150 per ton ($148 per tonne), according to Dombrowski—more than competitive with stone chips. And the result is a very attractive product, particularly to what Wausau perceives as the growing market for green building products. While there are other terrazzo-like products that use recycled glass, such as IceStone from Great Harbor Design Center and Vetrazzo from Counter/Production, such materials generally require either a background matrix or a coating of epoxy to sequester the recycled glass from reacting with cement. “With epoxy at about $21 per gallon ($5.50/liter) and epoxy-coated recycled glass at about $2,500 a ton ($2,460/tonne),” says Dombrowski, “we can make tile and other terrazzo products with recycled glass a lot more economically.” Wausau Tile is one of the largest terrazzo product manufacturers in the world, with a state-of-the-art 300,000 ft2 (27,900 m2) facility. The new recycled-glass-content terrazzo tile is approximately 60% recycled glass by weight.