A member(gldnfan) recently posted this about Ice Stone"

"DD and janie k - both of your kitchens are gorgeous.

To the poster who said essentially that a mix of luxury and budget keeps the luxury from showing - what a load of BS - the amazing backsplash pops beautifully from DD's kitchen and janie's light fixtures and cabinets are TDF.

And its already been said but the assertion that luxury and laminate in the same sentence is a no - please, that is simply a narrow minded assertion based on bias.

I spent a fortune on ice stone for my island - I once considered laminate because I thought it would go well with my nu-crete perimeter counters and I was having trouble deciding - oh how I wish I made that choice! Everyone loves the ice stone - it is quite the show stopper and I was also seduced. However, it is obvious it will not be an easy care surface and the glass easily chips out in places. I have only had it a month and the seam is chipping - it has not had hard use at all! We used the remnant for our wine bar and lemonade spilled during a party - deep etching within an hour. It is not in a very visible area but is very visible if you look at it so now I am frantic about what gets spilled on the island that is in full light - who needs that? I still like to look at it but I would not do it again."

I live in Canada and Ice Stone runs $160 a square foot in our area.

All of the composites, whether they're the glass terrazzos or Silstone and the like, which is made of stone dust, are little bits suspended in something they can make the solid out of. The usual binders are resin or concrete. Here's a good explanation of "quartz". I'm not positive, but my understanding is that most of the resins used are petrochemical based.

Resins are slick when polished, non-porous, and easy to use and care for. And shiny! Your glass and quartz is almost certainly in resin, so would share these properties. I've heard of some environmental problems with recycled glass used whole (i.e., not melted down), but my guess is that once it's sealed in resin it wouldn't be a problem.

Other recycled glass products are usually in cement. Ice Stone is one of these. I've seen at least one that was in polymerized concrete. These have the same maintenance issues that concrete does (porosity, etching, etc.), though the polymerized ones aren't really porous.

Anyway, the kind you're talking about should handle just like "quartz" once it's installed.