Impact of Climate Change on Ceramic Tableware Materials and Production

When you set a bright porcelain plate in the middle of the table, it feels delightfully timeless. Clay, glaze, color, food, friends: it all seems reassuringly solid. Yet that plate sits inside a very twenty-first‑century story about climate change, energy, and how our favorite objects behave in a hotter, more extreme world.

As a Colorful Tabletop Creative & Pragmatic Joy Curator, I spend my days jumping between studio visits, restaurant table mockups, and home kitchens. I see both sides of ceramics: the beauty of a perfectly balanced bowl, and the big invisible energy bill behind it. Climate change is not just something your tableware “survives” in daily use; it is also shaped by how that plate is mined, fired, shipped, used, and eventually retired.

In this deep dive, let’s pull the curtain back on what climate change means for ceramic tableware materials and production, and then turn that knowledge into practical, joyful decisions you can make at your own table.

A Warming World, A Hotter Kiln

Why ceramic production is so energy‑hungry

Ceramics are incredible at handling heat. Technical ceramics can operate in the range of about 1,830–2,910°F, and everyday porcelain bakeware happily faces oven temperatures far above a holiday roast. That superpower comes from their crystal structures, low thermal expansion, and high melting points, as manufacturers like Jinhua Ceramic explain.

The catch is that achieving those properties requires fierce firing.

A review of the ceramic tile industry in a Wiley ceramics journal describes how energy‑ and resource‑intensive ceramic production really is. Manufacturing a relatively thin square of tile roughly 11 square feet in size can consume about 5 gallons of water and around 32 kWh of energy, with close to 90% of that energy in the form of heat from fossil fuels. The same review estimates a global warming potential of about 14.4 kg of CO₂‑equivalent per square meter of tile, which is roughly 32 lb of CO₂ for that 11‑square‑foot patch.

Those numbers are for tiles, not dinner plates, but the physics is the same. Clay must be dried, then fired to temperatures well above 2,000°F, often more than once, then cooled in a controlled way. A 2023 case study in the journal Sustainability, looking specifically at ceramic tableware from ancient pit firing to modern factories, highlights that the big environmental pressures are raw mineral extraction and the extreme energy needed for firing. The authors emphasize that simply focusing on “non‑toxic” materials misses the main issue: high‑temperature kilns dominate the footprint.

In Thailand, a life cycle assessment of porcelain tableware from a small factory, published by a Taylor & Francis journal, found that manufacturing (especially firing) accounted for roughly 73–77% of each piece’s greenhouse‑gas emissions, with raw materials providing most of the rest and transportation contributing less than 1%. For nine porcelain products, the study reported carbon footprints of roughly 2.3–2.9 kg CO₂‑equivalent per kilogram of finished ware. In everyday terms, that is about 5–6.5 lb of CO₂ for every 2.2 lb of porcelain, mostly from fuel burned to fire the kilns.

Zooming out, the European ceramics industry generated about €26 billion in revenue in 2021 and emitted around 19 million tons of CO₂ per year, about 1% of industrial emissions regulated under the EU Emissions Trading System. Under the European Green Deal and European Climate Law, the sector is under strong pressure to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and cut greenhouse gases by at least 55% by 2030. Tableware is only a slice of that pie, but it shares the same kilns, fuels, and regulatory headwinds.

In other words, your dinner plate is a little emissive sculpture. The hotter and more often it was fired, and the dirtier the fuel, the more climate impact it carries out of the factory.

Life cycle: from ancient pits to modern factories

The Sustainability case study maps out five different production routes for tableware: a large automated porcelain factory, two small manufactories (slip casting and pottery wheel), an experimental high‑energy‑rate forming process, and an ancient pit‑firing reconstruction.

The mass factory scenario runs like a well‑oiled orchestra. Thousands of tons of porcelain are produced each year using pressure casting and isostatic granulate forming. Pieces go through a biscuit firing near 1,830°F, a high glost firing near 2,500°F, and often a third decorative firing in the 1,200–2,200°F range. More than 15% of the output can be rejected as waste, which still represents mined clay and fired energy that now need to be down‑cycled.

The tiny slip‑casting studio and the wheel‑throwing pottery workshop in the same study produce only a fraction of that volume. Their kilns are smaller, sometimes electric, and the energy per piece can be significantly different, but the fundamental pattern remains: high‑temperature firing dominates the environmental story.

An experimental “high‑energy‑rate forming” method uses pyrotechnic compositions to shape porcelain bodies and then fires them in a gas kiln. It might sound futuristic and fun, but the study shows it can be even more energy‑intensive per kilogram than conventional methods.

The ancient pit‑firing reconstruction, where clay is hand‑built and fired with wood and straw in a simple pit up to around 900°C (about 1,650°F), has a charms‑of‑prehistory vibe. Yet the life cycle assessment still records substantial emissions from burning biomass, while the resulting ware is porous, fragile, and not suited to everyday dishwasher‑heavy modern life. You would need to replace those pieces much more often.

The ecological punchline from these LCA studies is clear: almost regardless of method, the hottest, longest firings and the least efficient fuels cause the biggest climate hits. So extending the life of each piece and making kilns more efficient are where climate‑smart ceramics begin.

Ceramic vs plastic plates: who wins in a warming world?

Consumers often ask whether porcelain dinnerware is “better for the planet” than plastic. A MalaCasa sustainability article makes a strong case for porcelain: it is made from natural clays like kaolin, fired hard, inert, non‑porous, and incredibly durable. Plastics, by contrast, involve fossil‑fuel feedstocks, can contain additives like phthalates or bisphenols, and tend to crack and degrade much sooner under high heat.

A general review of life cycle assessments on plastic versus ceramic plates, summarized in the research notes from Tufts‑linked work, adds nuance. It explains that producing one ceramic plate has higher initial energy and emissions than making one plastic plate, but ceramics are designed for repeated use. When researchers model the full life cycle, they find that ceramic or other durable plates typically have to be reused on the order of dozens to sometimes hundreds of times before their per‑use climate impact drops below that of single‑use plastic plates. The exact break‑even point depends heavily on how efficiently you wash them and what kind of electricity your dishwasher uses.

These studies also agree on something very practical: for reusable plates, the use phase and especially washing often dominate total energy and water use. Running half‑empty dishwashers on scalding cycles powered by coal‑heavy grids can erode the benefits of your beautiful porcelain. Running full loads on efficient settings with modern machines can turn that same plate into a quiet climate hero over its long life.

So the climate magic of ceramics lies not only in what they are made from, but in how you treat them once they reach your kitchen.

Climate Change Is Also Changing Ceramics Themselves

Climate change is not just an emissions story. It also changes the environments where ceramic materials live: more intense heat waves, harsher freeze–thaw cycles, shifting pollution, and more aggressive salt and moisture patterns. Those changes are already visible in bricks, tiles, and concrete, and the same physics applies to tableware.

Thermal shock, expansion, and an atmosphere on overdrive

Ceramics are strong but brittle. A key property tying everything together is the coefficient of thermal expansion, or CTE. A Digitalfire technical glossary describes CTE as the tiny, reversible change in a ceramic’s size as it heats and cools. The numbers are minuscule, but the consequences are not.

If a glaze has higher expansion than the body beneath it, the glaze ends up in tension as the piece cools, which leads to crazing: a fine network of cracks that looks romantic but actually weakens the ware and can compromise food safety. If the glaze expansion is lower than the body, the glaze is pushed into compression and can shiver, flaking off in sharp shards. Industrial producers typically design bodies with slightly higher expansion than glazes, so the glaze sits under mild compression, safe and smooth.

Thermal expansion is also central to thermal shock: the cracking that happens when a hot dish meets a cold environment or vice versa. The Foundation of the American Ceramic Society uses a simple classroom experiment with glass rods to show this. Soda‑lime glass, the common greenish type, softens easily in a flame and shatters when plunged into ice water. Borosilicate glass, used for many lab beakers, fares better but still cracks. Fused silica, with near‑zero thermal expansion, shrugs off the same test with no visible softening and no cracks.

Ceramic tableware sits somewhere between soda‑lime and fused silica. According to Jinhua Ceramic and Malacasa’s heat‑resistance guide, everyday porcelain, stoneware, and high‑quality earthenware benefit from low thermal expansion and good thermal stability. They can handle hot ovens and boiling soups, but they are vulnerable when temperature changes are too sudden, especially if the body is porous or the glaze fit is marginal.

A review on atmospheric deterioration of ceramic building materials, published in a built‑environment journal on PubMed Central, shows how climate stressors work together. Temperature swings, water, airborne particles, and pollutants like sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide create cracks, hollows, and discoloration in bricks, limestone, and concrete. Freeze–thaw cycles push water in pores to expand and contract. Salts crystallize inside tiny voids. Repeated thermal shocks open microcracks that eventually become visible damage.

While that study focuses on buildings, the mechanisms are similar for tableware stored in unheated cabins, seaside homes, or outdoor cafés as climate patterns get wilder.

When ceramics go to Antarctica

To see these stresses in extreme form, consider Antarctic research stations. A long‑form article from Vancasso Tableware explains why many stations ban ceramic tableware altogether. At subzero temperatures, already brittle ceramic bodies become even less forgiving. Porous earthenware that has absorbed a little moisture can be quietly primed for disaster. When that water freezes it expands, exerting enormous pressure on the pores and microcracks, a process called freeze–thaw spalling.

Add to this the thermal shock of moving dishes between a warm galley and a freezing vestibule or pouring boiling drinks into a mug that has been sitting in the cold. Add the salt aerosols and humidity swings of coastal polar stations. According to the article, repeated cycles of this kind cause microcracks, glaze crazing, flaking, and eventually sudden shattering, often with little visible warning.

These environments are more extreme than your kitchen, of course. But as global weather becomes more volatile, the same types of stress—bigger temperature swings, more intense freeze–thaw, changing humidity—are marching slowly toward ordinary homes, especially in coastal and northern regions. That has implications for how and where you store delicate pieces and which bodies you choose for outdoor or seasonal use.

Heat Waves in the Kitchen: How Climate Change Meets Everyday Use

As heat waves become more frequent, ovens and small appliances run harder and longer, often in less insulated homes. That makes the thermal life of your tableware even more interesting.

Jinhua Ceramic emphasizes that ceramics have low thermal conductivity. They heat more slowly and hold heat longer than metals, which is lovely for keeping food warm and avoiding hot‑spot burns. Their low thermal expansion and high melting points mean that normal cooking temperatures do not come close to softening or deforming properly fired ware. Porcelain can have a melting point above roughly 2,190°F, while alumina‑based technical ceramics can melt closer to 3,720°F.

MalaCasa’s heat‑resistance guide notes that technical ceramics can be designed to operate in the 1,830–2,910°F range, far above home cooking. For tableware, standards like ISO 10545‑9 test glazed ceramics by cycling them between around 300°F and room temperature, looking for cracks or gloss changes. Dense, well‑vitrified bodies with well‑matched glazes pass these tests repeatedly.

Solecasa, a large tableware manufacturer, points out that most household ceramic plates fired in the 2,190–2,550°F range are comfortable for daily use around 100–200°F and, when explicitly labeled oven‑safe, often up to about 390–480°F. Again, the most common failure mode is not melting, but thermal shock. Hot plates placed on cold stone countertops, or cold plates thrust into fully preheated ovens, are more likely to crack than plates slowly warmed with the oven or set on a trivet.

Malacasa’s guide adds a modern twist: appliances like air fryers, often working between about 180–400°F, concentrate heat on a small patch of counter. That creates localized thermal shock zones under the appliance and under hot dishes that land beside it. Their recommendation is practical and climate‑aligned: place such appliances on heat‑resistant mats or pedestals and create small air gaps with trivets. That protects counters and reduces breakage, extending the life of both surfaces and ceramics.

In my own styling work, I think of this as “thermal choreography.” When I plan a holiday table that flows from freezer‑cold dessert plates to broiler‑hot main plates, I collect pieces that can truly dance that routine: fully vitrified porcelain, good body–glaze fit (no crazing from earlier use), and thoughtful choreography of how those dishes travel between oven, counter, and table without sudden jolts.

Materials Under Pressure: Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain, and Plastic

Different materials respond to climate and use in different ways. Here is a condensed comparison grounded in the research notes.

Well‑made ceramics, especially stoneware and porcelain, shine when you play the long game. A single porcelain plate that survives thousands of meals and dozens of Thanksgiving‑level feasts, washed in full, efficient loads, can beat a towering stack of single‑use plastic plates in climate terms.

Zakłady Bolesławiec, a Polish pottery maker, underscores another angle: local clay and handmade production can reduce transport distances and allow for very durable pieces with lead‑ and cadmium‑free glazes. Their article is honest that ceramics still rely on energy‑intensive kilns and mining, while shipping remains a major source of emissions. The greener move is not simply swapping one logo for another, but choosing fewer, better, longer‑lasting pieces and treating them as long‑term companions rather than disposable decor.

How Makers Are Reimagining Clay for a Hotter Planet

Cleaner kilns and smarter bodies

If kilns are a big source of ceramic emissions, can they be tamed? Several studies point to promising paths.

The Sri Lankan tile life cycle assessment in Frontiers in Built Environment evaluates four eco‑innovation scenarios: substituting some virgin feldspar with fly ash waste, recovering heat from kiln flue gases, switching to solar photovoltaic electricity, and combining all three plus rainwater harvesting. The integrated scenario cuts global warming potential by about 21%, terrestrial acidification by more than 26%, and fine particulate formation by more than 25% compared with business‑as‑usual. Those numbers come from construction tiles, but the same strategies—waste valorization, heat recovery, cleaner electricity, smarter water use—apply directly to tableware factories.

The Wiley review of tile manufacturing highlights three pillars of a sustainability strategy: product design, market and supply chain, and process efficiency. On the process side, it notes that around 36% of thermal energy goes into spray drying, about 9% into drying, and more than half into firing. That breakdown suggests that low‑carbon technologies and digital controls that optimize each stage could significantly cut emissions.

On the product side, researchers have experimented with anorthite‑based porcelain compositions that sinter at roughly 40°C lower than conventional mullite‑based porcelain. In Fahrenheit, that is a decrease of around 70°F in firing temperature, which translates into measurable fuel savings. The challenge is that these compositions have narrower sintering windows, making industrial adoption tricky. Still, they show that it is possible to rethink the chemistry of tableware bodies to save energy without sacrificing strength.

The Thai tableware LCA backs up the importance of energy supply. It finds that LPG for biscuit and glost firing and electricity for clay preparation account for roughly 75–80% of total greenhouse‑gas emissions. The authors recommend retrofitting existing kilns to ceramic fiber‑lined shuttle kilns that could halve LPG use, which they estimate would cut emissions from Thai ceramic tableware by around 18–19% at projected 2030 production levels.

As a tabletop stylist, I love hearing manufacturers talk about kiln insulation and heat recovery in the same breath as glaze color and form. It means those cozy bowls are being designed not just for your soup, but also for a different kind of climate future.

Ecodesign and local thinking

The Sustainability tableware case study defines ecodesign as a systematic approach that considers environmental impacts across the product life cycle alongside affordability, function, ergonomics, and aesthetics. It urges ceramic producers to redesign bodies, glazes, and forming processes based on full life cycle assessment rather than intuition alone.

That can mean many things: choosing glaze formulations that can incorporate waste streams like wood ash, as MalaCasa notes, turning sawmill by‑products into durable, food‑safe surfaces. It can mean reducing mass just enough to meet “just‑enough quality” standards, as the Wiley review suggests for BIb‑category tiles, which can match the flexural strength of higher‑end porcelain while allowing more use of lower‑grade or waste‑derived raw materials.

Local and artisanal approaches, like Polish pottery’s use of nearby clay deposits and hand decoration, can reduce transportation emissions and improve durability through meticulous craftsmanship. However, the Polish article also warns about the environmental cost of mining rare glaze ingredients and the need to shift kilns to cleaner or renewable energy sources. Ecodesign is not a guarantee that “handmade” equals “low‑impact,” but it is a framework for making trade‑offs visible and intentional.

Artists as climate storytellers

Climate work in ceramics is not only about kilns and kilowatt‑hours. It is also about hearts and imaginations.

A Ceramic School feature profiles five artists whose clay‑based practices directly engage with the climate crisis. Alex Goad uses 3D‑printed, hollow, slip‑cast ceramic modules as coral nurseries, leveraging the chemical inertness of ceramics to create new reef habitats. Tyler Burton casts plastic bottles in porcelain and stacks them into haunting columns, making our plastic legacy visible in museum‑scale form. Ukrainian potter and environmentalist Yuliya Makliuk runs a Clean Green Ceramics‑certified studio and teaches other potters to shrink their studio footprints, drawing on her background in environmental consulting and life‑cycle assessment.

Courtney Mattison, trained in ocean conservation, builds immense, hyper‑detailed ceramic reef sculptures installed in public spaces across continents. Her glazes capture both the lushness of healthy reefs and the ghostly whites of coral bleaching, a process defined in the Ceramic School article as corals expelling symbiotic algae under stress from heat, light, or nutrients, leaving them pale, vulnerable, and more likely to die. Canadian ceramicist Amy Snyder, in her “Crushed” installation, spills hundreds of paper‑thin terracotta bowls across a floor, mirroring the fragile, anxious awareness many of us carry about our own role in climate destruction.

Heath Ceramics shares another powerful collaboration: the “Geophagia” installation with artist Andy Goldsworthy and the FOR‑SITE Foundation. In a historic San Francisco dining room, raw white clay was laid over old tables like a thick, living tablecloth. At first smooth and reflective, the field of clay slowly dried, cracked, and parched over weeks, evoking drought and land degradation. As curator Cheryl Haines put it, this work did not simply depict climate change; it was climate change, unfolding under the same sun as the Pacific just beyond the windows.

When I curate tabletops that nod to these works—reef‑blue glazes, cracked‑earth textures, ghost‑pale porcelain beside charred black stone—I see guests lean in and ask questions. That is the secret superpower of ceramics in a climate conversation: they can embody planetary stories right under your spoon.

What You Can Do: Climate‑Savvy Choices for a Joyful Table

All of this research is only useful if it changes what we do with our plates, bowls, and mugs. The good news is that most climate‑smart moves are also budget‑smart and beauty‑friendly.

Choose durable bodies you love enough to keep. For everyday plates and bowls, fully vitrified porcelain and well‑fired stoneware are your strongest allies. Their low porosity, high strength, and good thermal shock resistance mean you will replace them less often. That is exactly the strength MalaCasa and Jinhua emphasize when they argue for porcelain over plastic or low‑grade ceramics.

Avoid relying on low‑fired earthenware for heavy daily hot–cold duty. Earthenware is perfect for painterly serving pieces and decorative platters, but Malacasa and Joyye both caution that its higher porosity makes it more vulnerable to freeze–thaw, cracking, and glaze spalling. Reserve it for room‑temperature roles or gentle warming.

Handle temperature transitions like a choreographer, not a stunt driver. Follow the practical recommendations echoed by Jinhua, Malacasa, Solecasa, and Joyye: do not move dishes directly between the freezer and a fully preheated oven; let hot dishes cool a bit before rinsing; pre‑warm very cold dishes with lukewarm water before pouring boiling liquids; and use trivets or thick silicone mats under hot dishes and appliances. These habits reduce thermal shock and extend the lifespan of your pieces.

Watch the clues your ceramics give you. Digitalfire notes that crazing (a fine crackle pattern) indicates glaze tension, while shivering (flakes popping off edges) signals dangerous compression. Malacasa and Jinhua recommend retiring cracked or visibly damaged pieces rather than pushing them through one more holiday buffet. From a climate perspective, that might feel counterintuitive, but an item that fails in service or leaks contaminants is not doing anyone any favors. Replace it with something built to last.

Wash smart. Lean on the LCA insight that use‑phase washing can dominate impacts. Run full dishwasher loads, choose energy‑ and water‑efficient machines and cycles, and avoid unnecessarily high temperatures while still meeting hygiene needs. That is where your porcelain’s ability to shrug off repeated washing becomes a genuine emissions advantage over most plastics.

Finally, treat your table as a conversation surface. A single wood‑ash glazed platter, like the ones described by MalaCasa, can spark questions about circularity and waste. A set of reef‑blue bowls might tee up a chat about coral bleaching. A cracked‑earth vase inspired by Heath’s “Geophagia” collaboration can carry a quiet message about drought. Climate‑conscious dining does not have to feel heavy; it can be vibrant, playful, and deliciously beautiful.

Short FAQ

Is porcelain dinnerware really more sustainable than plastic?

Porcelain has a higher upfront energy and emissions footprint per piece because it is fired at intense temperatures, often more than once. However, articles from MalaCasa and general life‑cycle assessments summarized in the research notes show that when porcelain is reused dozens to hundreds of times and washed efficiently, its per‑use climate impact can drop below that of single‑use plastic plates. Porcelain also avoids many of the hazardous additives used in plastics and is inert at end of life. The key is to invest in porcelain you truly like and will use for years, rather than treating it as a disposable fashion item.

Can heat waves or cold snaps damage my everyday plates?

Yes, but mostly through thermal shock and freeze–thaw rather than simply being “too hot or too cold.” Jinhua and Malacasa stress that ceramics handle high steady temperatures very well, but dislike rapid temperature changes: hot dishes placed on cold stone, or cold plates shoved into a fully preheated oven. In cold climates, Malacasa and the Antarctic case study from Vancasso show how moisture in porous bodies can freeze and expand, causing cracking and spalling over time. Storing ceramics in relatively stable indoor conditions and avoiding sudden thermal jumps will protect them even as outdoor temperatures swing more wildly with climate change.

How can I tell if a ceramic piece is likely to fail from thermal shock?

Digitalfire recommends watching for signs of poor glaze fit: visible crazing suggests the glaze is under tension, while sharp flakes or chips along edges indicate shivering. A piece that has been through many extreme cycles and developed microcracks may also sound dull rather than clear when gently tapped. Malacasa and Solecasa add that items without clear oven‑safe markings should not be used in high‑temperature baking, and anything with existing cracks, chips, or heavy crazing is best retired from hot‑food service. When in doubt, reserve questionable pieces for room‑temperature or decorative use.

Climate change is not some abstract storm on a far horizon; it is already etched into the microcracks of bricks, the fuel burned in kilns, and the way your favorite mug tolerates a winter morning pour. The joyful news is that by choosing durable, well‑made ceramics, caring for them thoughtfully, and supporting makers who are cleaning up their kilns and telling honest climate stories through clay, you turn every meal into a quietly radical act. Colorful, practical, playful: your table can be all three and still be a good neighbor to the planet.

References

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10133669/
2. https://sustainability.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/LifeCycleAnalysisPlasticPlatevsCeramic.pdf
3. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nbsspecialpublication303.pdf
4. https://foundation.ceramics.org/teacher-resources/free-lesson-plans/thermal-shock/
5. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/built-environment/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2025.1654253/full
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371324032_LCA_Case_Study_of_Ceramic_Tableware_Ecodesign_Aspects_of_Ceramics_Production_from_Ancient_Technology_to_Present_Factory
7. https://ceramic.school/5-ceramic-artists-making-positive-environmental-impacts/
8. https://digitalfire.com/glossary/co-efficient+of+thermal+expansion
9. https://jinhuaceramic.com/is-ceramics-heat-resistant/
10. https://www.joyye.com/info-detail/temperature-effects-on-ceramic-tableware-quality