Renewing your countertops

RECYCLED countertops sound awful, don’t they? But it doesn’t mean revarnished junk. In fact, recycled countertops are indistinguishable from new ones – except for that feel-good green factor.

Old countertops go into landfills or are burned. Today, paper, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and other recycled products can be mashed and bound together with industrial resins, epoxies and cement in order to create new materials.

If you have young children or use a lot of beetroot and other products that tend to stain, look for recycled countertops that are high in glass. As they’re not porous, they tend to be stain-resistant. For added durability, make sure there’s a good sealant – preferably several nice coats of the stuff.

Tops with lots of aluminium are like granite. These products tend to be rich in aluminum and copper flake, as well as recycled acrylic so what you get is a rich, shiny top that’s hard and durable but lighter in weight than actual stone. If you’re looking for a metallic look, then this is the material to aim for.

Finally, paperstone tops look like stone, but because they’ve so much paper and bamboo content, they’re lighter. The other advantage is that they’re usually the same colour all the way through, which means that light scratches don’t show as much as they do when only the top of the counter is coloured.