Decorative Ceiling Panel Uses Recycled Content

Standard decorative ceiling panels are made using plaster in a relatively labor-intensive process, according to Brooks Williams, a marketing manager at Chicago Metallic. Monarch GE is made on an automated line in “a simpler, cleaner, more energy-efficient process,” said Williams, offering environmental and cost benefits. The bulk of the panels are tiny, lightweight, durable glass spheres manufactured by Poraver from 100% post-consumer recycled glass. (Although saved from the landfill, the beads are not without environmental costs—they are manufactured at 1,650°F, or 900°C, using significant energy.) Chicago Metallic takes back used panels and sells them to other manufacturers as crushed material to be used as a mastic.

Chicago Metallic offers Monarch GE in coffer, open-coffer, and flat-panel designs, and says that panels won’t warp, sag, or grow mold. The panels fit into a standard two-foot-square (0.6-m2) suspended grid; non-decorative filler panels are used for edges. Unpainted, they reflect 83% of the light that falls on them, helping spread daylight through a room, and they hold paint well without trapping dirt. For rooms with sound-deadening needs, Monarch GE includes a drop-in acoustic coffer that keeps the decorative profile of the Monarch GE while offering greater sound absorption.