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If you’re following trends, then you already know that crushed glass countertops are hitting the market. They’re a new, eco-friendly way to ensure that you have a durable, great looking counter.
Are they right for your home?
Read on and we’ll go over the pros and cons of these recycled countertops and you’ll be able to see if they might be the right addition during your kitchen remodel.
Recycled glass countertops are made by setting crushed up glass pieces in either concrete or an acrylic matrix. What you end up with is a rough mosaic of matrix and glass, providing a unique aesthetic to the countertop.
Acrylic countertops tend to give the impression of floating glass chunks while those with a concrete base have a classic mosaic art feel to them.
They’re a little bit different in their care. Concrete is a bit tougher and more chemically resistant but still needs to be sealed like a stone countertop a couple of times a year.
Don’t confuse them with regular glass countertops, which are made of a single piece of glass.
They come in a wide variety of colors, each with their own unique charm.
Of course, the important thing for those looking to invest in a crushed glass countertop is how they compare to other materials.
There’s a lot of pros to using a crushed glass countertop.
The biggest one, for most people, is the price as compared to natural stones like granite or marble. Depending on the recycled glass pattern you go with, often they’ll end up costing less per square foot installed than you’ll pay for the material costs of high end-granite.
There’s another big factor for most people: crushed glass countertops are mostly made with post-consumer glass.
That means you’re looking at a use for the massive quantities of glass which makes its way into recycling plants and isn’t always disposed of properly.
As a counter material, crushed glass is also remarkably resilient. Like most stones, you can cut directly on it if you wish without fear of scratches and it’s quite resistant to impact.
They’re also extremely easy to keep up. For some matrix materials you’ll need to reseal occasionally but the materials are more resilient to chemical attack than granite or marble which means you don’t need to purchase specialized cleaners.
Anything which makes cleaning your kitchen a little bit easier is likely to be appreciated in the long run.
Finally, they have the same “uniqueness” as you’ll find with stones at a much lower price. While some of the lower end materials available, like Formica, are created with a repeating pattern, each crushed glass countertop has its own unique look thanks to the construction of the slabs.
It’s a lot of good for the average home.
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect.
The biggest flaw?
They’re not natural stone, which is still the hallmark material of high-dollar kitchens. Nothing yet has quite been able to match the beauty of real granite and marble.
Those with an acrylic base, as opposed to concrete, don’t boast the same acid resistance either. That means you’ll need to be careful what you cut on them in order to make sure you don’t cloud the acrylic which can harm the look of the counter.
Since it’s a new material there’s a caveat as well. Not everyone who offers recycled glass countertops is quite up to speed on the unique properties of the material. Instead, you need to spend some time making sure you have someone with the experience and facilities to treat your slab properly.
Lastly, despite their green construction, there’s some criticism for those that use concrete for their base. Concrete is an enormous contributor of greenhouse gasses.
If the whole idea for you is to purchase a countertop which is environmentally friendly you’ll want to look for a slab which is made with an acrylic base instead.
Due to the lower costs and relative novelty, more people than ever before are looking at these counters.
Fortunately, they’re comparable to stone in durability and the choice for most people largely boils down to environmental sustainability and the aesthetic.
Of course, the lower price doesn’t hurt either.
Those who want them… well, the downsides are pretty minor compared to the majority of good stuff that comes with them.
Basically, if you’re considering them then they’re a viable option. The only place where they’re not a great choice is commercial kitchens, which are almost inevitably stainless steel anyways.
Take a good look at the different varieties available, they might be exactly the choice which you’ve been looking for.
They’re a budget way to add a splash of color and life to a kitchen without having to go through the massive expenses which characterize marble or granite.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Blasting Glass Beads. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
The only time they’re not recommended is if you’re remodeling a kitchen for sale, particularly in high-end homes where natural stone is still the rule.
Basically: if you want them, then they’re a safe choice for almost any home.
If you’re ready to start planning your remodel and you think that the unique look of a crushed glass countertop will suit you, then you’re in luck.
While they’re new to the market, there are already some great name brands who work with reputable fabricators like International Granite and Stone to help you bring your imagined counter to life.
According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, the total amount of waste material has increased from 88 million tons in to 262 million tons in . In , 26% of the waste materials was recycled and 9% was composted. Additionally, 13% was combusted with energy recovery and 52% was disposed of in landfills.
Among all the waste materials that have been recycled, batteries and steel are the most recyclable. Although glass is a material that can be recycled, just 34% of waste glass has been recycled. The main reason why collected mix-color waste glass isn’t recycled is due to its chemical composition.
Typically, glass containers consist of sand, soda ash, limestone and cullet. Sand is glass’s main component and is its source of silica. Some recyclers add soda ash to the mixture to decrease the melting temperature. The chemical compositions of different glass colors differ slightly which affect their melting temperature. Therefore, you can’t properly recycle glass containers unless you have them sorted based on their color.
Another reason why glass containers can’t be recycled efficiently is the source of the waste glass. Usually, people mix waste glass, such as bottles or containers, during the collection process. To recycle collected waste glass, operators must sort the glass based on colors and types. This is a very time-consuming and inefficient process.
Contamination is another reason why some waste glass containers aren’t recycled. They must be free of any chemical residue, medicine or any other hazardous material before the recycling process.
You can add cementitious materials such as pozzolans to concrete mixtures to enhance their mechanical and durability properties. When grinded to a powder, glass becomes one of the natural pozzolans that improves concrete’s fresh and hardened properties.
While concrete is in its plastic phase, glass powder will increase its workability, so it requires less energy, cost and time to place and consolidate the concrete. While the concrete is in its hardened phase, concrete containing glass powder exhibits better strength, freeze-thaw resistance and sulfate resistance.
You can use glass powder to replace portland cement, typically at a 10%-30% replacement level by weight. Portland cement production is one of the main sources for CO2 emission. Incorporating waste glass in concrete as a portland cement replacement does more than help the environment by reducing the amount of CO2 emission. It also reduces the amount of waste glass disposed in landfills.
The size of the glass particles plays a crucial role in the pozzolanic performance of the glass powder. Concrete containing finer glass particles shows more promising mechanical and durability performance than that of concrete containing coarser particles.
Besides powder, you can also use waste glass as an aggregate in concrete in the form of fine or coarse aggregates. Since aggregates occupy approximately 70% of the concrete, using glass cullet as aggregate in concrete does more than incorporate more waste glass in concrete. It also decreases the energy and time required to ground the glass particles into powder.
However, you should consider a mitigation method to suppress alkali-silica reaction (ASR) when the concrete mixture contains glass aggregates. ASR is a chemical reaction between alkalis from portland cement and reactive aggregates within the concrete that results in ASR gel.
With moisture present, ASR gel expands and causes the concrete to deteriorate. People consider glass aggregates highly reactive due to both high alkali and silica content embedded in their microstructure, (Glass has approximately 70% silica and 15% sodium.) Typically, concrete containing green glass exhibits less distress due to the presence of chromium.
There are several ways to eliminate the likelihood of deleterious ASR reaction in concrete containing waste glass aggregates. Using low-alkali portland cement and/or incorporating supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as silica fume, fly ash, slag and metakaolin can mitigate ASR distress in concrete containing waste glass aggregate.
Among the conventional SCMs, silica fume and metakaolin are the most effective ones. Previous studies showed that using approximately 10% of either silica fume or metakaolin can mitigate the ASR distress in concrete containing 100% glass aggregates by almost 90%.
You can also use glass powder as a SCM in concrete (i.e., replacement for portland cement) to mitigate ASR distress. However, it’s not as effective as the conventional SCMs. For example, you can replace 30% of portland cement and 100% of aggregates with glass powder and glass aggregate, respectively. In doing this, you won’t encounter any ASR distress.
The strength of concrete containing glass powder as a cement replacement material is approximately equal to that of concrete containing only portland cement. However, its durability properties outperform that of conventional concrete.
The strength of concrete containing glass aggregates is 10%-20% less than that of concrete containing mineral aggregates. This reduction in mechanical properties is due to the lower strength of aggregates as well as less bonding between the glass aggregates and the paste compared to the mineral aggregates.
Having said that, you can use concrete containing waste glass for indoor applications (where you don’t expect exposure to aggressive materials and moisture). You can also use it for sidewalks, pavements and curbs that require less strength. Using this type of concrete in indoor applications eliminates the presence of water and, consequently, ASR distress.
Note that using waste glass aggregates will significantly reduce the concrete mixture’s workability. The glass cullets’ angular shapes negatively affect the concrete mixture’s workability. Subsequently, you must use a superplasticizer to ease concrete placement and consolidation.
Research has shown that concrete containing waste glass aggregates has better abrasion resistance than conventional concrete containing mineral aggregates. Even if you don’t replace all the mineral aggregates with glass aggregate, the glass particles will rise to the concrete’s surface due to their lower density compared to mineral aggregates and the paste.
What is the effect of clear bottle glass to the concrete?
Introducing glass to a concrete mix will result in a chemical reaction known as alkali-silica reaction (ASR). I’m not a chemist, but this reaction causes glass to dislodge or become loose in the concrete matrix over time.
You can reduce this reaction by replacing a portion of the portland cement with fly ash (aka metakaolin). Some chemical densifiers also eliminate ASR which means that using glass in concrete is doable. You just need to do your homework beforehand.
Here is another article you might find helpful.
How do you ensure that these glass mixtures are not harmful for humans or pets?
The use of glass in concrete as a decorative treatment is nothing new. We often see it used in terrazzo which is the flooring of choice for airports, exhibition centers, hotels and more.
Like stone, glass has jagged edges and that actually a good thing because the cement around that piece of aggregate has more to hold onto once the concrete has cured.
When glass aggregate is broadcast onto freshly placed concrete, it needs to be troweled into the surface of the concrete. That troweling process lays the aggregate down while embedding in the surface of the concrete. The contractor then follows behind with the application of a surface retarder that is washed off several hours later, removing some of the concrete paste and exposing the colorful aggregates (or glass aggregates). Smaller size aggregates require less removal of cement paste, while larger aggregates require more removal of the cement paste to expose larger aggregates.
In the case of a decorative concrete patio around the swimming pool, smaller aggregates are common in an effort to ensure that the surface is enjoyable to walk on with bare feet.