Green and Clean: Ecofriendly Bathroom Sinks

Green and Clean: Ecofriendly Bathroom Sinks

If bathtub sinks haven’t made your heart, remain with me, friends, because the toilet lav doesn’t have to be this ho-hum. Plus, a few of the sexiest sinks are green to boot up. In reality, these salvaged and recycled-content lavs may leave you gazing down instead of at the mirror.

Minarc RUBBiSH sink

Recycled rubber sinks. Hubba hubba! Minarc’s sleek and renewable RUBBiSH recycled rubber sink starts with old rubber tires which are melted and purified, then shaped into a sheet that is stretched over a base framework and anchored to the drain collar to shape the sink. My tires must be so lucky.

Salvaged sinks. Using salvaged materials provides a chance to get creative. Nearly anything bowl-like can be a sink, even so long as a hole can be drilled in it and a drain can be connected. This salvaged cast-metal basin makes a stunning and character-rich counterpart to the mod orange partitions.

Bathtub Vessel Copper Sink

Engineered aluminum sinks. Timeless and durable aluminum is a natural at the bathroom, with its inherent antibacterial and antifungal properties. And it may be an ecofriendly choice too once you use a recycled aluminum sink, like people from family-owned Premier Copper Products, whose sinks are comprised of 99.9 % recycled copper. The wealthy character of the sinks comes courtesy of hands hammering by artisans and preaging the aluminum over an open fire to develop its heavy patina.

Eleek Inc..

Eleek’s Zazen Sink

Recycled bronze countertops. Amp up your bathroom’s elegance with inimitable bronze. Eleek a certified B Corporation whose cast bronze countertops are made of 90% recycled content, recommends leaving the bright metal raw and uncoated, adding that ” … a living patina is a manifestation of the lifetime of the object. Use it. Enjoy it. Allow it to tell its story” You can slow down the patina process or preserve the patina with the occasional use of wax, or remove it with a secure abrasive like Bon Ami or a scrubby sponge.

Tracy Stone AIA

Recycled aluminum countertops. Need further incentive to throw that soda or beer can into the recycling bin? The end product of your recycling may be sleek, modern recycled aluminum sink like this one. Postconsumer and industrial scraps frequently contain nearly all of the aluminum used in those sinks.

Alchemy

Velvet Cienega Sink

Recycled glass sinks. A luminous jewel for your toilet, a recycled-glass sink looks terrific in a very simple design which showcases the artisan stone. Alchemy Glass, one of several recycled-glass-sink manufacturers, has many sinks which feature recycled glass, including its Cosmic Burst, with shards of recycled glass fused into the container.

Contemporary home architects

Cement-based sinks. Cast-in-place concrete sinks, every poured for a special installation, offer ultimate flexibility to design the perfect sink for you and your toilet. Green your concrete with recycled aggregates like glass, porcelain or coal fly ash (though bypass the fly ash if coal isn’t produced in your region, since the transport energy interrupts any green cred).

Instead, Lithistone’s ceramic cement utilizes roughly 20 to 40 percent less electricity than Portland Cement, thus decreasing the sinks’ carbon footprint. The rest of Lithistone’s matrix consists of natural mineral ore, different levels of stone and sand, recycled material and natural mineral pigments.

DuChateau Floors

Wood sinks. Your lav may be an unexpected place for connecting with character by integrating natural materials, like wood. Just make sure connection is ecofriendly by seeking wood that is either salvaged or licensed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which implies, in part, that wood products come from responsibly harvested woods. And make sure you seal it with a no- or – low-VOC (nontoxic) sealer.

Gaspar’s Construction

Salvaged ceramic countertops. Traditional ceramic sinks aren’t bad — they’re certainly durable, lasting a hundred years or longer. And porcelain is largely made from natural substances applied to either a cast iron or stainless steel base.

But we can save those natural resources and maintain aged lavs from the landfill by seeking a salvaged porcelain sink; they’re plentiful at architectural salvage shops. If the surface is a small grubby or matte, get in touch with a local refinisher and request that a low-VOC finish.

More:
Guides to greener construction and decorating

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