I was in Seattle last week dropping my friend off from her visit and before we said our goodbyes we made a quick trip over to Bedrock Industries. My friend Katie is a mosaic artist who creates amazing pieces and I was looking for some inspiration and a launching off point for the interior finishes of the tree house. So it was only fitting to go and get inspired at the best little trail blazing tile shop in town. This place is 100 percent amazing because their tiles are 100 percent recycled........from start to finish. Now if there are any other designers / architects out there you know as I do nothing is EVER 100 percent recycled. This company takes old and unwanted bottles or light fixtures, just about anything glass and produces a variety of wall tiles for kitchens and bathrooms in all shapes and sizes. Plus they offer the DIY a huge variety of tumbled glass for all your wildest creations. All the tiles / glass are created in their plant and no pigment or anything is added it's just crushed up bottles.
So simple, right? Lets just keep something as it is and change the dynamic of the application..... But oh, lets take it to another level and ship tiles out in the world in 100 percent recycled shipping containers. Uh brilliant!!!!
So why is this concept, this way of life of using what we already create and throw away such a rarity? It should be easier and cheaper to buy something that is recycled. I love this company and what they stand for and ended up buying just a small handful of tiles as a accent in the kitchen because my budget can't afford recycled trash bottles to tile an entire back splash. Fireclay tile is also doing a extreme recycling line called Deris that is taking crushed and cast off porcelain toilets and sinks from landfills and creating wonderful tiles. But at $21 dollars a sq foot my chances of using it just flew out the door.
I understand that these companies need to make a profit and I'm not pointing fingers at these two companies (they are amazing), but things are really ass backwards when you stop and really look at the big picture. They are getting free trash..... yes they have to dig it out of the landfill and go get the bottles from the trash, but I guess what I can't wrap my head around is the fact that its more expensive then a non recycled tile at home depot that was created using more chemicals and fossil fuels and is packaged with non recycled packaging and being mass produced all over our plant.
This post was intended to show you this really amazing tile that has inspired me and I have ended up getting really pissed off at what we are doing to ourselves. Is it a pipe dream to really practice what we say we want? I don't want to pay $4.00 a gallon for gas but do I have a choice? Can I really support building "green" if my budget is not $500,000 dollars? What can we do to really change? Are we ever really going to change? When is enough enough? Anyone have any answers?
