Nowra start-up Noveco Surfaces scores NAB funding to expand recycled glass tiles for kitchens

Noveco Surfaces tiles are made with 80 per cent recycled glass

A Nowra-based start-up which turns old wine bottles into high-end tiles has been backed by NAB in a $7.75m debt round as it looks to enter the benchtop market.

Noveco Surfaces uses a patented technology from the University of New South Wales’ Sustainable Materials Research & Technology Centre, that enables it to manufacture tiles from 80 per cent recycled glass, and says the end product is stronger, safer and better for the environment than ceramic tiles.

The majority of the glass it uses is from residential yellow-lidded recycling bins, from which about 1 billion kilograms of recycled glass is collected each year, said Ryan Fritsch, Noveco Surfaces chief executive.

Noveco Surfaces has a design team that works on custom coloured and patterned tiles.

“The interesting thing is that the majority of it ends up in landfill or parallel, where it doesn’t necessarily get thrown in the ground but doesn’t really go anywhere either. It just kind of sits there waiting for something to be done with it,” Mr Fritsch said.

“But in most instances, the best thing that ever happens with it is that it ends up as a road base.”

While he said the amount of glass being recycled in Australia was high, few manufacturers had developed ways to use the glass.

Mr Fritsch, who once worked for multinational brewer AB InBev, said most manufacturers had struggled to find solutions for recycled glass because different types of glass could not be combined. That was an issue for AB InBev as wine bottles and beer bottles were unable to be recycled together, he said.

But with tiles, it didn’t matter, and Mr Fritsch said Noveco Surfaces had formed a design team that was able to fill custom requests for different colours and patterned tiles.

Originally from the US, Mr Fritsch took charge of the start-up in March after holding two chief executive roles, at Kandui Technologies and Winning Group, and three years as a commercial advisor in a family office.

Noveco Surfaces chief executive Ryan Fritsch.

He said while Noveco Surfaces tiles were more expensive than ceramic tiles at the moment, by the end of year, pending negotiations on a new facility, the firm would be able to increase its manufacturing capacity tenfold and the price would drop.

“We will go from about 20,000sq m a year at our current site to over 250,000sq m a year at our future site, so we’re talking about a 10-times increase starting from December,” Mr Fritsch said.

“Even running at a relatively moderate pace, we’d have the ability to double, if not triple, those numbers when it commercially makes sense to do so.”

He said the massive jump in production would allow the company to manufacture tiles at a price on par with the rest of the market, and Noveco Surfaces anticipated that it would lead to a major take-up of its product.

Noveco Surfaces’ tiles can be handled in much the same way as a regular ceramic tile, but the start-up advises tilers and stone masons to use wet-saw cutting or water jet cutting to minimise the dust with moisture.

“We’ve done our own air quality tests to make sure that it’s safe to handle and it exceeds any standards,” Mr Fritsch said.

In the past, the business’s customers had been those who opted for greener choices, but Mr Fitsch said he expected the tiles would soon appeal to all consumers as the price came down.

The start-up recently struck up a partnership with a demolition business, which will remove glass from old buildings and use it to supply tiles for a redevelopment or renovation.