saved all the tiles and hoped I would find an imaginative client. “Then along came The Hive! I had to tweak the color palette and add some more pieces but I was finally able to give the piece a place in the real world,” she said. Another recent No Tile Left Behind project was a shower for a previous client of Edelstein. “I was able to utilize glass, ceram- ic, and porcelain in a blue/green color palette to create a large scale mosaic for their master bathroom remodel,” she said. “Fortunately, I have a large stu- dio,” she said. “So I am able to store the rescued tile and stone until I can find them a new home.” Another “Green” perspective Another “green” perspective on recycling comes from appro- priately named NTCA mem- ber Phil Green, owner of PGC Construction, Remodeling and Design in Gilberts, Ill. He’s also the creative genius behind the “Back Butter Buddy” tool, a tile-centric Lazy Susan that sits atop a bucket and allows large tiles to be turned more ergonomically. He’s putting his innovative mind to work on the recycling issue and he’s outspoken about the need for novel solutions. “We in the tile/remodeling indus- try generate a fair amount of waste materials during the course of our projects. Even the cartons and bags from our tile and thinset become something that we need to deal with,” he said. “As the planet gets more and more cluttered with debris from a ‘disposable-minded’ society we NEED, MUST, ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO do our personal fair share to chip in and become part of the solution. Many programs already exist, and new ones are on the horizon that look for alternatives to bagging and shipping everything to the dump.” Green detailed a few things that his company has chosen to do to help: “When we demo a kitchen or bath we do it in such a way as to not damage the reusable prod- ucts from the project,” he said. “Sure, sledge hammers work, but they are just to add drama on the HOT TOPICS ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Glass, ceramic and porcelain from Edelstein’s No Tile Left Behind tiles cre- ated this stunning shower. 50 TileLetter | August 2018