Recycled Glass Aggregate — Decorative Terrazzo and Concrete Chip

Primary uses

• Decorative aggregate
• Recycled-content contribution
• Light-reflective surface effect

Applications

• Terrazzo and polished decorative floors
• Engineered and cast surface products
• Architectural precast faces
• Projects targeting recycled-content credits

Advantages

• Distinctive decorative appearance in exposed and polished finishes that no natural aggregate reproduces
• Contributes recycled content that supports green building documentation on a project
• Available in colour ranges that let designers specify a particular look

Limitations to consider

• Alkali–silica reaction risk in cementitious systems must be addressed in the mix design, typically with pozzolans and testing
• Colour and grading depend on the recycled feed stream, so batch consistency needs managing
• Composition, grading and reactivity are declared by the supplier and confirmed by your own testing
• Decorative and architectural work is judged by eye. Colour, gloss, texture and translucency shift with batch, substrate, dosage and finishing method, so approve a physical sample panel made by your own process before a production run and keep it as the reference for later deliveries.
• Where the finished element goes into a building, the performance that matters is the performance of your element under the applicable code and project specification, not the property of a single ingredient. Testing and conformity evidence for the finished product are the responsibility of the producer and are established by project-specific testing.
• Mix ratio, pot life, working time, demould time, full-cure schedule, hardness, tear strength, elongation, shrinkage, viscosity and temperature resistance are properties of one specific supplier system. They are never quoted here from memory or by analogy with a similar product; they are read from the supplier data sheet for the exact material offered and confirmed at quotation.

How to choose the right grade

• Start from the element being produced and the specification it has to satisfy, because binder, aggregate and admixture choices are decided together rather than one at a time
• State the placing method — poured, vibrated, sprayed or pressed — since rheology requirements follow from it
• Describe the curing regime and the plant conditions, including whether production continues through a Canadian winter
• Raise ASR mitigation with the mix designer at the outset rather than after a trial panel fails
• Approve a physical sample panel as the colour and grading reference
• Mould-making and casting behaviour depends on the pattern, the shop temperature and humidity, the mixing method and the operator. A production-representative trial on your own pattern and in your own shop conditions is the only honest way to qualify a material before a run is committed.
• Exact specification is confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.

Typical grades

• Gradings and colour ranges as the supplier classifies them
• Products the supplier distinguishes by feed stream and processing
• Buyers search this category by grade name, and those names describe what the workshop needs rather than what is asserted here. Which grade a specific offer corresponds to, and what the supplier declares for it, is read from the technical documentation issued for the exact material quoted.
• Materials in this category interact: rubbers, releases, sealers, resins, pigments and fillers can inhibit cure, stain a surface or shorten mould life when they are combined outside the combinations the supplier has tested. State every material already in the process at enquiry so compatibility is checked against supplier documentation rather than discovered on the shop floor.
• Reactive materials age in the container, and moisture-sensitive systems age faster once opened. Order against real consumption rather than against a discount, and confirm the shelf life the supplier states for the exact product and pack.