Palo Alto Green Building Resource Guide

I found it very difficult to find materials and vendors for recycled building materials that would meet the Palo Alto Green Building requirements. I decided to share what I learned here.

Countertops

I came across three main recycled options: plastic, glass, and paper.

  • Plastic: Durat is an interesting product, very sleek and modern so not right for our project, but could be a definite option.
  • Glass: Icestone and Vetrazzo seem to be the big two. They have a lot of unique color options and a similar look to Quartz. They are quite a bit more expensive than traditional fabricated countertops though.
  • Paper: Yes, as crazy as it sounds there are two different companies, Richlite and Paperstone, making countertops out of compressed paper and resin in a similar process to the way Corian is made. I ordered samples of these and they are remarkable. The color options are more on the modern end and there is no white or even very light colored options, but the black is reminiscent of soapstone and I think it will work well for our project. Richlite has an interesting history. It was originally developed in the 1940s by the aerospace industry and used in the 2000s for skateparks. I’ve seen it used for kitchen cutting boards as well. A little bird told me that Paperstone was founded by someone from Richlite with a desire to use more environmentally friendly resins during production. Paperstone is “The Countertop with a Conscience™”, I mean, you can’t argue with that?!

Recycled Content

I think these spec sheets from Cerami Inc are all that you need to include in the binder. You can also request a spec sheet from each specific vendor at time of order if there are different product variations.

Another win for Paperstone!

Vendors

Cerami Inc (San Rafael) is a regional distributor for Durat, Icestone, and Paperstone and can steer you towards a local dealer (with a showroom) or a fabricator (for a contractor).

Scan-Top (Redwood City) is a dealer for Richlite and Paperstone. This is who we ultimately went with. The “showroom” was pretty barebones, but they were open most days, answered all my questions, and were easy to work with. Keep in mind that it does take a couple weeks to order the material (ships from Seattle) so the whole process from ordering to install took about a month. They did have some remnants available onsite at a reduced cost.

Superior Surfaces (Santa Clara) is a dealer for Richlite and Paperstone and has a showroom where you can view the materials and learn more about them. Unfortunately they weren’t very responsive and their show room is open by appointment only so I didn’t end up working with them.

Green Building Supply (online store) you can order slabs of Paperstone online if you contractor is comfortable with measurements and final install. (Green Building Supply sells samples of Richlite and Vetrazzo, distributor restictions prohibit you from ordering these to California.)

Tile

There are two types of recycled tile:

  • Glass: tends to be higher percent recycled content AND post-consumer content.
  • Clay: mostly pre-consumer (factory floor) recycled content, also much more expensive than regular ceramic tile.

Recycled Content

Uptown Glass: Spec sheets online are a little vague. The LEED letter states PRE-consumer recycled glass at 98%.  You can place order at Daltile San Jose (408 435 1566). They quoted me $22.60/ sq ft.

Fire Clay tile is minimum 50% pre and post consumer recycled content (this means you can only claim 25% of value).

MSI Surfaces makes a few recycled glass tiles. I like the STATUARIO CELANO 3X6X8MM, but vendors are hard to find and I could not obtain a spec sheet.

Vendors

Daltile has a handful of recycled products. You can search products on Daltile’s website and then select the product from their LEED letter tool to obtain a quick spec sheet for any product. By far the highest recycled content is for their glass products, but a lot of their ceramic tile is listed as around 30% pre consumer recycled content so you can get around 15% credit. It’s not easy to search for recycled tiles though, for example, sometimes an item comes up in the recycled search but when you download a LEED letter for the item it actually shows no recycled content. I ordered some samples and they are really nice. They are pretty shiny for a big surface area, but would definitely make a nice backsplash. You can place order from their San Jose distributor (408 435 1566)  (I was quoted about $22.60/ sq ft.)

FireClay is a very fancy tile manufacturer local to San Francisco. I really wanted to use their product, they have every imaginable shape and color available for custom order, but the price was just too high for our project. They do have all required product sheets for their recycled products. Prices are available online and rand from $15-$45/ sq ft.

Home Depot had a couple items listed as recycled, but I could not obtain a spec sheet to verify recycled content.

Insulation

Blue Jean Insulation! There is a lot of information on the web about this stuff. A few pros and cons. Slightly more expensive than traditional fiberglass insulation.

Recycled Content: 80% post-consumer recycled denim

Vendor: Home Depot

Green Fiber Blown in Insulation

Recycled Content: up to 85% recycled content, over 25% post-consumer

Vendor: Home Depot

Owens Corning Attic Cat Blown in Insulation

Recycled Content: minimum 64% post-consumer, 9% pre-consumer

Vendor: Home Depot

Interior Doors

TrustileMDF doors made of 69% pre-consumer recycled content, can claim about %35 of value.

Vendor: Pioneer Millwork

Reclaimed Wood Products

**These seem like recycled products to me, but my green building consultant implied that we might not be able to count them as such so might want to confirm before going this route.**

Reclaimed West (Mountain View) has a warehouse full of reclaimed wood right near Costco in Mountain View. They have only been around for 2 years and are still navigating the reclaimed wood product environment. They can probably make anything you want, but some examples are countertops, bathroom vanities, shelving, mantles, and faux beam covers. They quoted me about $350/sq ft for countertops, which is too expensive to be worth it for me. single sink vanities start at $1200 depending on what you want.

Elmwood Reclaimed Timber is a really cool company. They offer lots of reclaimed wood products and can provide recycled content letters. Unfortunately, they are located in Missouri, and shipping can be up to $400, but do send samples and possibly their products are still cheaper than local reclaimed wood companies. There is a lot of helpful information on their website and they are friendly and helpful to talk to over the phone. I was quoted about $9.5/sf ft for unfinished antique oak flooring. Phone: 800 705 0705

Roofing

EnviroShake roofing materials are really cool. Products are made from 95% repurposed materials and the water runoff is potable!

Stainless Steel Sinks

Just Sinks claims Stainless Steel Sinks that are 90% recycled steel… I could not obtain a spec sheet stating this though, and they had to offer was this: https://www.justmfg.com/PDF/US1618A.pdf

Carpet

I found regular old carpet made of recycled water bottles at Home Depot. Mohawk makes a line called Everstrand. It basically looks like regular cheap-ish synthetic carpet, but will work for our project.

Carpet Recycled Content: The website states “up to 100% post-consumer recycled content). The tricky thing is that each retailer renames the product for their own store. In order to get the spec sheet you have to call Mohawk technical support (888 387 9881) with a model number (home depot lists the Mohawk model number as well as their model number on the product web page).

It took about a week, but I received the spec sheet for “speed trap” (Model #0742D) stating only 55.6% POST-consumer recycled content. When I requested additional letters for other models from the same customer service rep I received the letters within a day or two.

Carpet Underlayment: Recycled carpet/flooring underlayment is a no-brainer.

Quiet Walk (Also available at Home Depot): is made from 94% Pre-consumer recycled content. Price: $0.48/ sq ft.

Absorba Sound: Higher grade product made from 100% Pre-Consumer Recycled Rubber. Price: $0.84/ sq ft.

Technoflex: Another high grade product made from 100% recycled tires. I assume that this is post-consumer, but they don’t have a clear enough spec sheet available to prove this so you might not be able to claim the content on this product. Price: $0.60/sq ft.

Cork Flooring

Duro Design makes a recycled cork flooring.

Recycled Content: 93% pre-consumer

Vendors: Menlo Flooring and Baila Floors

Drywall

Supposedly there are recycled gypsum drywall boards, but I was not able to source them in California.

Ceiling Tiles

There are several options for high recycled content for ceiling tiles, both MDF and metal:

  • Shanko Metal Ceiling Tiles made from up to 62% recycled steel from http://www.shanko.com/–I can’t get a spec sheet though.
  • MDF Ceiling Tiles from Ceilume.com. The Random Grey color is 100% PRE-consumer recycled content. Other colors also have some portion of recycled content. (Customer service responded that they could prepare a letter if their online spec sheets were not sufficient documentation.)

Vendor: Both can be purchased from Home Depot

Other notable companies that I didn’t dig into:

  • https://www.coveringsetc.com/ (really pricey, but very novel and interesting materials, 100% recycled options)
  • Home Depot has some mouldings made by American Pro Decor that are made from 100% Recycled Polystyrene, but spec sheets are not available.
  • Marmoleum: Not sure who is still using linoleum, but this >50% pre-consumer recycled product is eco friendly alternative is available in lot’s of colors and from a variety of vendors.
  • MTI Shower Bases claim to be recycled but I could not get a spec sheet  https://mtibaths.com/assets/product-specs-2018/MTSB-6036.pdf
  • School House recycled brass draw pulls and hinges. Pricey, but looks like a nice heavy product. No spec sheet available upon request.
  • Rubber Gym flooring made from 100% post-consumer tire rubber
  • Varaluz Lighting sounds like it is using a lot of recycled steel and glass in it’s manufacturing, but unable to obtain a spec sheet.
  • Premier Copper Products have lots of items made from recycled copper, but unable to obtain a spec sheet.

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