Natural Stone Reclamation

I was curious about how marble is recycled—it is a natural product we work with every day, but don’t often realize how sustainable it is as an architectural material. A brief Google search produced a few webpages, some unexpected topics on marble reclamation:

A story from Emory University about recycling marble flooring in a historic restoration…there is a nice picture toward the bottom (link).

A scientific analysis of using granite and marble sludge as a flux material when added to clay with no detrimental properties (link). Another concludes that marble sludge can be feasibly added to concrete (link).

And, its safe to say terrazzo, the flooring made out of leftover (recycled!) marble chips, is an ancient example of creative reuse. A general article on terrazzo (link).

Its nice to know there are multiple ways to reclaim natural stone—they don’t call it ‘natural’ for nothing!