Recycled glass Countertops
Recycled glass Countertops Star of the Q-C Home Show
By Alma Gaul
 You don’t have to be a HGTV junkie to know there’s been an explosion of countertop choices in recent years.
Everywhere you turn, it seems, people are swapping their Formica countertops for something more “high end,” such as solid-surface Corian, marble, engineered stone or the wildly popular granite.
Now there’s a new choice called Vetrazzo, made of 85 percent recycled glass bonded together with cement, adhesives and pigments in a smooth, shiny surface that is durable, handles heat and can be cleaned with a damp cloth.
It’s available in 16 colors, but the palette evolves as the California manufacturer locates new sources of glass.
A particularly eye-catching choice called Cobalt Skyy is made with cobalt blue Skyy Vodka bottles. Cubist Clear is comprised of tempered glass, such as car windshields and shower doors. And Alehouse Amber is, as the name suggests, heavily populated with shards of brown beer bottles.
In the Quad-Cities, Vetrazzo is sold by Warestone, a 2-year-old company in Bettendorf that will showcase the product in a kitchen setting next weekend (Feb. 8-10) at the home show at the Expo Center, Rock Island.
Chris Ware said he first heard of Vetrazzo several months ago when a customer called asking for it. After some research, he decided to become a dealer.
It’s expensive stuff. Prices range from $70 to $180 per square foot, depending on availability. By comparison, a widely available green granite called Uba Tuba costs $22 per square foot, although the upper end of granite is similar in price to Vetrazzo, Ware said.
Vetrazzo was invented in 1996 in Berkeley, Calif., by a glass scientist working on his doctorate degree who wanted to recapture the beauty of recycled glass and transform it into a building material, according to the company’s Web site, vetrazzo.com. The scientist formed a partnership to sell the product in small batches and business kept growing.
In October 2006, a new team under the name Vetrazzo opened a manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay area. The plant’s first panel was installed on the nationally televised show, “Living with Ed,” starring environmental activist and actor Ed Begley Jr.
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324
More information
Countertops of the Future
Granite Countertops Info Page
|
