As the founder of Gecco Interiors responsible for the choice of suppliers, it was up to me to take a trip to Stoke-on-Trent for a factory tour of Johnson Tiles. We had heard that they had a purpose built, state of the art factory that used recycled materials as part of their production, so I was keen to see it in action.
A mountain of pottery
I had been a student at Keele University just outside Stoke during the late 1980’s and was excited to return to the area, to see if much had changed. It hadn’t and the potteries industry still seemed to dominate the area. Fifteen years ago, Johnson Tiles decided to use this to their advantage and to request that the local council saw broken and discarded ceramic pottery as a raw material, rather than a waste product. Once agreed, this meant that up to 14 local pottery producers could send their lorries full of broken pottery up to the Johnson site for re-use, rather than send it off to an expensive landfill. The resulting heap of broken pottery is quite astounding.
Lovely Statistics
Statistics state that 20,000 tonnes of ceramic material is recycled in this process, equivalent to 53 million dinner plates or 120 million cups or, more importantly, 24,000 cubic metres of landfill saved. It is estimated that 235,000miles of HGV journeys are saved with this local recycling system – a reduction of 133,750 litres of diesel and 360 tonnes of CO2.
Soon to be shiny new tiles
The broken pottery is scooped up and poured into an industrial crusher to be turned into dust. Inside the factory, this dust is mixed with other elements for the tiles such as clay. It is held in vast water settlement tanks, before being spun in a huge centrifugal tank and dried off. It is then sent through to the next part of the factory for forming into tiles. Much of the water is treated and re-used for other areas of production. In the factory, 30,000m³ of water is re-used annually (equivalent of 30% of total water usage.)
Making the tiles
Once formed, the tiles which contain on average 30% recycled ceramics are glazed and printed. Any tiles that are faulty or broken during any part of the production process, are simply collected and returned to the crusher back at the beginning of the production run. Johnson Tiles have recently commissioned a new method of printing using Ink Jet printing which uses digital image process techniques and allows the design to be printed right up to each edge of the tile unlike other printing methods and can also print on uneven surfaces.
Once printed and glazed, the tiles enter one of two enormous kilns for firing at up to 1100º!! They can spend up to 55minutes in the kiln, which stretches for about 100m down the production line. Johnson Tiles have looked at the impact of the kilns, which are fired by natural gas and used to release the majority of the flue gases and waste heat into the atmosphere. Last year a large heat recovery system was fitted on to one of the kilns which collects the excess heat and funnels it back to the beginning of the kiln – saving 90% of emissions and creating a saving of 10% per year on the kiln’s fuel bills or 446 tonnes of CO2 each year from being discharged into the atmosphere. Another unit is in planning for the second kiln.
Once cooled, the tiles are loaded onto huge storage trolleys before being taken for final inspection by fully automated robotic trucks. They are later packaged in recycled cardboard cartons and placed on pallets awaiting delivery. Many of the pallets are second hand, as Johnsons have a policy of buying used pallets and repairing them where possible for re-use in their factory – creating an annual saving of 1,250 tonnes of virgin timber.
This amazing factory, built in 2001, has brought Johnson Tiles to the forefront of sustainable production, whilst upholding the quality and design features that define their ceramic tiles. I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the tile factory and hope that you enjoy the tile selection on our site, safe in the knowledge that they are produced using the most sustainable methods available today.