Our facilities are solutions-driven, with the goal of being zero-to-landfill. We work to cleverly and responsibly minimize our carbon footprint and divert waste back into our products and process for full-circle production — from grinding up ceramics to reprocessing paper and cardboard waste. This is an ongoing endeavor — we’re proud and excited to share what we’ve accomplished so far:

Energy efficiency: Heath’s proprietary clay body is the first and still remains the only low-fire stoneware — an innovation created in 1947 that still leads the industry. Our ceramic clay bodies require one firing as opposed to the more typical two firings, and are fired at a lower temperature than is customarily used to reach the same levels of durability. By rebuilding our kilns in 2009, we increased our kiln capacity allowing us to fire more tile per kiln, while at the same time reducing gas consumption in each firing.

In the factory: Our greywater system recycles all of the water used in our factory’s production for reuse. Our Recycled Clay Body is made from collecting scrap from unfired clay and glaze overspray in our SF tile factory — it’s important for our sustainability goals, and the result is a product with beautiful variation. Currently, our Recycled Clay Body is used to produce our Stan Bitters tile collection, and we are working on expanding the range of products with this clay body.

In the warehouse: Heath’s local factories and retail model mean we have never required any packaging for our dinnerware product. Even when we do ship, we use a recyclable paper-based packing material: we proudly pack all of our products using ExpandOS, nifty 100% post-industrial waste packing material that’s 100% reusable and recyclable — in place of styrofoam peanuts or other petroleum-based packaging materials. Styrofoam packing peanuts that enter the business are diverted from landfill and funneled into our out-of-house reuse program.

In the showroom: Our seconds and overstock programs, for both tile and dinnerware, are an excellent example of products that are diverted from the waste stream. All are sold through our Sausalito showroom and make their way into happy homes, instead of being discarded into landfill. We also divert cutoffs and overruns of perfectly-imperfect Heath tile, from landfill, by offering Mixed Tile Boxes to local customers for their crafty use. We have boxes filled with varying shapes and sizes, mixed 1sts + 2nds, grouped by color family, each containing 4–8 sq ft, available in Sausalito, for $5 per box.

More to come — we’re always improving, and we’ll share more updates on our zero-waste adventure as they come! Come visit us for a factory tour, and see what we’ve got in the works.