Project Information Sheet
Glass plus project – sustainable ceramic tiles from Cathodic Ray Tube
(GLASS Plus)
Programme area:
Material recycling, innovative ceramic tiles production using recycled
CRT glass
Coordinator:
Meta
Meta SpA, Italy
E-mail: d.carra@gruppoconcorde.it
Tel: +39 0536 928511
Full name of the organisation (not only acronym), full name of country
Consorzio Re.Media, Italy
RELIGHT Srl, Italy
Vallone Srl, Italy
ASEKOL s.r.o., Checz Republic
Ceramiche REFIN SpA, Italy
www.glassplus.eu
Partners:
Website:
Benefits
(max. 150
characters incl.
space):
GLASS Plus project reduces the disposal of post consumer end of life
CRT diverting second raw materials toward an innovative production
process aimed at manufacturing innovative high quality fine
stoneware ceramic tiles. A reduction in the use of energy, the overall
carbon footprint and pollution derives. Precious raw materials – often
extracted from mines in other continents – need is strongly reduced,
as well.
Keywords:
Type of solution
CRT panel glass recycling, innovative ceramic tiles, eco innovative
product
NACE code1 and description (C23.31.00- Manufacture of ceramic tiles
and flags)
Innovative product and related process
Duration:
Budget:
Contract number:
09/09/2010 – 08/12/2011
€ 1.135.159 (EU contribution: 49,88%)
ECO/09/256055/SI2.568802
Sector:
Summary
The current global market shift from standard CRT (Cathodic Ray Tube) devices toward new LCD, plasma or LED
monitors and TV sets, will stimulate in the next years an increase in the CRTs waste quantities. In the meanwhile,
new CRTs won’t be any longer required, preventing or anyway limiting a closed loop recycling flow approach.
Recycling CRT glass requires a proper waste collection and an enhanced recycling process, due to some
potentially dangerous components contained and to the industrial second raw materials requirement needed to be
reused in the production of new items. Therefore it is really important focusing on the end-of-life CRT utilization
process, especially when the resulting raw material is used to manufacture new product in an open-loop recycling
approach. GLASS Plus aims at using the recycled CRT glass – properly treated – to produce high quality, LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) compliant ceramic tiles through an innovative industrial process
adopting state of the art technologies and know how. These will save natural resources and energy, giving new life
to a precious industrial waste.
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http://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/index/nace_all.html
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The whole process – from CRTs to ceramic tiles – will be addressed; innovative materials will be then put onto the
market. The GLASS Plus project is indeed focused on processes and technologies for the recycling plants (to get
better quality recycled glass) and the ceramic plant (to develop dedicated production lines), as well as for the new
generation ceramic goods promotion to the market. GLASS Plus project is focused on:
- refining the end to end industrial process, in order to achieve a better efficiency, in industrial terms;
- setting up two innovative plants for the pre-processing of the CRT glass;
- setting up an innovative plant for the atomized ceramic powders production, in order to better use the CRT glass
instead of the feldspar normally used in the ceramics production;
- fine tuning the production phase of the ceramic goods;
- exploiting the final products, analyzing the market potential and constraints to boost the product sales;
- disseminating the GLASS Plus process and technology, to facilitate the reuse and spread of this new solution;
- furthering the market uptake of the final ceramic products.
The GLASS Plus project gathers Meta and REFIN – two companies of the Concorde Group, an Italian based
enterprise with a global leadership in the ceramic tiles market –, RELIGHT and Vallone – two recycling plants
specialised in the CRT glass recovery, ReMedia and ASEKOL – respectively an Italian and a Czech WEEE
collecting systems. The members of the project wide experience in the industrial sectors concerned is a guarantee
for the quality of the results.
The GLASS Plus project aims at manufacturing fine stoneware ceramic tiles which very high technical features
adhere to the most severe requirements both at European and International level, even if recycled CRT glass is
used inside the ceramic body.
Expected and/or achieved results
- GLASS Plus project aims at the industrial implementation of a proved, innovative state-of-the-art production
process starting from end-of-life CRTs panels recycling focused on the production of innovative ceramic tiles.
- The utilisation of recycled CRT panel glass brings to the reduction on the use of natural “feldspar”, a mineral
currently used in the body of the standard tiles and the Zirconium compounds – used as whitening ingredient.
These materials requires to be extracted from quarries or mines – bearing an heavy burden in environmental and
energy terms. Moreover they comes from far away – e.g. from the Turkey, South Africa, Australia – consuming a lot
of transport resources.
- The use of recycled CRT glass diverts big quantities of waste from the landfills, creating value and new job
opportunity in the recycling industry. It is also an example of how an end of life post consumer product – also if
difficult to dismantle, treat and dispose – can find a new life in a completely different sector.
- The strong reduction of environmental impact obtained avoiding to transport – both by ship and on the road –raw
materials from far far away (as Turkey, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia). This will imply a strong reduction both in
energy saving terms and in pollution and overall carbon footprint. The carbon dioxide reduction can be estimated in
about 0,7 kg CO2 per square meter manufactured, bringing to hundreds of tons of reduction per year.
- The use of recycled CRT panel glass diverts big quantities of waste from the landfills, creating value and new job
opportunity in the recycling industry. It is also an example of how an end of life post consumer product – also if
difficult to dismantle, treat and dispose – can find a new life in a completely different sector.
- Using ceramic tiles containing high percentage of recycled CRT panel glass let the designer to gain LEED
(Leadership in Environment and Energy Design) score to classify the building under construction. This facilitate the
Energy certification of the building itself, tank to this new sustainable building American standard.
The utilization of building materials containing recycled CRT glass could indeed be used to increase the MR credits
(Material and resources 4.1 and 4.2), thanks to the content of at least 20% of post-consumer recycled raw
materials.
The information sheet will be published in the Eco-Innovation website. The EACI reserves the right to edit
the information sheet for content and length
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