Portland, Maine based company Beachstone is taking a different approach that creates no waste, while offering a custom product to make uniquely your own, with embedded shells, stainless steel figures, custom tints and interesting aggregate combinations. Because of the custom design and local production, the cost is much more reasonable.
Beachstone’s owner Aron Buterbaugh, has a solid background in ceramics engineering and design. After a stint as head of design at Syracuse China, then in contractor and retail sales for a tile showroom, he became interested in recycled glass countertops. His customers liked the product, but the way the product was supplied – in large slabs from west coast manufacturers – made the cost prohibitive and wasted a lot of product. For a common sized 4-foot vanity countertop, cutting from a large slab tallied up to an exorbitant $300/square foot, with a great deal of wasted product.
So Buterbaugh set out to develop a countertop that could be custom-made for a fraction of the big slab cost. He was able to formulate a compound that can be custom designed with a broad palette of colors and infinite shapes and sizes. As a result, Beachstone’s custom product averages $95 square foot, and is made to order.Because of its recycled composition—sourced bottle glass from Portland, Maine-based Allagash Brewing Company, and local sea shells—the counters are LEED certified with a pressure-tested formula. And as one of the few recycled glass countertop products on the east coast, transportation costs are considerably lower than trucking from California.
Beachstone’s innovation and commitment to reducing waste is great to hear about. Read more about Katahdin’s eco-friendly, no waste philosophy.