ABOUT ECO™ BY COSENTINO
What is ECO by Cosentino?
ECO™ by Cosentino is a durable surface made of 75% recycled content composed of post-industrial or post-consumer materials and is bound by an environmentally friendly resin which comes in part from corn oil. ECO by Cosentino is also an ideal substitute for natural or engineered stone.
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ECO™ by Cosentino Attributes
High performance against staining, scratching and scorching
Non-porous, does not require sealers
Available in 10 designer colors and two textures (Leather™ and polished)
Available in 63"x 128" slab and standard size tiles
Backed by a 5 year limited warranty
Building teams can gain points toward LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for a building project with ECO by Cosentino surfacing GreenGuard, NSF and Cradle to Cradle Certifications
GLOSSARY
Post-Consumer
Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item. Post-consumer materials include recyclables collected in commercial and residential recycling programs, such as office paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and metals, glass, mirrors, and porcelain. It is simply the garbage that individuals routinely discard in a waste receptacle that without recycling would otherwise end up as landfill. Post-consumer recycled materials have served their intended use, been collected from the end-user, and reprocessed as something new.
Post-Industrial
By contrast, post-industrial material is derived from manufacturing waste or sub-standard products that have not been used. This material is collected, recycled and used in the creation of a product other than that for which it was originally harvested. Post-industrial material comes from factories and manufacturing processes and can include many forms of plastic, glass, metal, and industrial ashes. For example, broken and flawed glass discarded in the production of car windscreens. Cradle to Cradle
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is a third-party certification that provides a company with a means to tangibly, credibly measure achievement in environmentally-intelligent design and helps educate customers on ECO™ by Cosentino-friendly products. All C2C products are made from non-toxic materials that, at the end of their life, are taken apart and either turned into raw materials for new products or returned to the earth as compost. These products are manufactured using renewable energy and marketed with socially responsible strategies. For example, a towel made of organic cotton which can be recycled or is biodegradable is a C2C product.
LEED
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a third-party certification program created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. Building and design projects can receive a LEED rating for performance in five key areas, including: human and environmental health; sustainable site development; water savings; energy efficiency; materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
GREENGUARD Certification
The goal of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is to improve indoor air quality by testing a product's chemical emissions. GREENGUARD has three third-party certification programs including GREENGUARD Indoor Air quality, GREENGUARD Children & Schools, and the GREENGUARD Building Construction certification. GREENGUARD's Children & School Certification is GREENGUARD's strictest standard for measuring chemical emissions, certifying that the product has been screened for more than 10,000 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), phthalates, formaldehyde, aldehydes and other particles. Elevated levels of VOCs have proven to contribute to health issues ranging from asthma to neurological and respiratory disease. Products with GREENGUARD certification have shown a significant reduction of chemical emission from their products.
There are other eco-friendly surfacing materials in the market today. ECO by Cosentino reutilizes materials that have reached the end of their life cycle, thus saving on the creation and consumption of natural resources. Most of the raw materials used in the creation of ECO by Cosentino are:
Materials include:
- Porcelain
- Mirror
- Crystallized Ash
- Glass
- Stone Scraps
- Corn
ADVANTAGES OF USING RECYCLED RAW MATERIALS
Post-consumer/Post-industrial Mirror
Materials used to produce ECO by Cosentino are post-consumer and post-industrial waste. The advantage of this is that the material being used has no other lifecycle. For example, every year tons of broken mirror is wasted all over the world because there is no other use for the material.
Post-consumer Recycled Glass
Producing ECO by Cosentino results in the salvation of raw materials and reduction in new mining (3000 bottles equals 1Tn of raw materials). It also reduces the amount of bottles going to landfills, which helps the problem of uncontrolled trash. Every year we expect to recycle the equivalent of 65 million glass bottles!
Post-consumer Waste
Garbage accumulation all over the world is a fast growing problem as consumer consumption increases. The source of raw materials is almost infinite (iron scrap) and it undergoes a burning process that is highly efficient. (Quitariamos iron scrap).
Post-industrial Ceramic
Material from bathrooms, dishes, cups, shower pans and defective porcelain tiles. There is no other use for this material - it cannot be incorporated into any other industrial product. This material is reused in the production of ECO by Cosentino which saves building up tons of waste in landfills year after year.
Good waste management processes must incorporate the recycling and reutilization of products and materials as a way to contribute towards the preservation of our environment. Social responsibility grows day to day not only from the consumer stand point, using eco-friendly and recycled products, but also from a manufacturer's stand point as we consider the growing concern of national and international environmental and legal groups.
Cosentino maintains guidelines for the continuous improvement and development of eco-friendly processes through innovation and technology achieved by our investment and commitment to the environment.
The growth of Cosentino is directly linked to its eco-friendly practices that respect, protect and rebuild the environment, from the early stages of mining and transformation of our products, and raw material sourcing all the way through our distribution.
During the manufacturing process of ECO by Cosentino, 94% of the water used is recycled, thus minimizing the consumption of a very important resource. All of the minerals used in the production of ECO by Cosentino come from quarries that are fully restored under strict stewardship programs and the manufacturing process is strictly controlled to avoid emissions of any harmful particles into the air.