The village of Helena in Ohio received the largest grant awarded this year from the Sandusky County Park District. Using the money with a match from the village they purchased new playground equipment. The project cost  $14,108. The grant amount totaled $16,000.

The playground equipment is 25 years old and was not safe. It now meets consumer product safety commission standards. “The new playground includes a climbing wall, three slides and a wave climber.”

The thing the article doesn’t state is what the playground surface will be – to us a critical issue. According to U.S. Product Safety Commission report:

“There are two options available for surfacing public playgrounds: unitary and loose-fill materials. A playground should never be installed without protective surfacing of some type. Concrete, asphalt, or other hard surfaces should never be directly under playground equipment. Grass and dirt are not considered protective surfacing because wear and environmental factors can reduce their shock absorbing effectiveness.”

They further state:

The surfacing under and around playground equipment is one of the most important factors in reducing the likelihood of life-threatening head injuries. A fall onto a shock absorbing surface is less likely to cause a serious head injury than a fall onto a hard surface.

Rubberecycle encourages people to do the “egg test” – if you drop an egg from the top of the playground – does it break? With rubber mulch it has been shown not to. That means a safer playground for your kids.

There have been repeated questions about the safety of rubber mulch for playground cover or synthetic turf fields. That’s despite studies that show no elevated health risks for children or adults due to these surfaces.

Recently another study confirmed this. On July 30, the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a new study of the risks to children and adults playing on synthetic turf fields containing crumb rubber infill also presents no elevated health risks.

This validates conclusions from recent studies done by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other governmental agencies, including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health, the New York City Department of Health, and the California EPA.

The study provides valuable guidance to municipalities, schools and others who operate or are considering installing artificial playing fields.”

Four state agencies – the University of Connecticut Health Center, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – collaborated on the study. Nine scientists from the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) were asked to review the study and issue its own report.

Key points from major findings of the study:

• “Outdoor and indoor artificial turf fields are not associated with elevated health risks from the inhalation of volatile or particle bound chemicals.”

• The readings at the indoor field (in a building with a broken exhaust system) showed higher levels of chemical emissions, but, as noted above, below levels of concern. The DEP recommends ventilation of indoor fields.

• The Department of Environmental Protection evaluated the environmental risk associated with storm water runoff from the artificial turf fields tested in the air study. They concluded there is no risk to drinking water from this runoff, but a potential risk exists for surface waters and aquatic organisms.

“In over 40 years of EPA oversight and OSHA regulated manufacturing, there has never been an instance of illness attributed to synthetic turf. This study and numerous others validate the long-term human health and environmental safety of synthetic turf systems,” said Rick Doyle, president of the Synthetic Turf Council.

The Connecticut study can be viewed at www.ct.gov/dep/artificialturf.

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KaBOOM! a nonprofit that builds playgrounds has a summer challenge to help inspire parents and kids to go to the park. They have chosen 9 parents who take their children to a new park every day this summer, starting July 1. The parents are telling their stories and sharing pictures of their experiences.

Why not take the playground challenge yourself? Go to a different playground each day for a week. Have kids help you make simple scrapbooks with things they learned, did or collected at the playground. Choose your family favorites. Get involved. Most of all help your kids get outside and moving. It’s even good for the grownups.

We like the photo of the dad lying in the shade created by playground equipment to try to stay out of the hot sun (plus the surface is — you guessed it – rubber mulch!)

Source: http://kaboom.org/blog/park_a_day_summer_challenge_week_1

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It’s not very often you see a merry-go-round on a playground anymore. That fact has many children and adults pining for one. In Texas at a playground, they are especially missed. They playground had a pair of enormous merry-go-rounds.

These were pretty amazing merry-go-rounds too. Just one could hold 30 children. They were likely build during the Great Depression and have become part of the history of the town.

Last year the school expanded, taking over part of the playground. Then came new, handicap-accessible playground equipment. But they’re not giving up. There is a request for bids on the antique merry-go-round and there are already offers coming in.

There were some concerns about playground safety — more than one child has fallen off the toy. Which is part of the experience. We say, it’s not if they fall it’s when they do. In most cases, it’s not so much the fall, but what they land on that matters!

Do you have nostalgic feelings for a particular toy on a playground that you grew up playing on?

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Did you know that Michelle Obama has a blog? She does. As part of her effort to fight childhood obesity she launched a blog. She’s bringing it all home with her “South Lawn Series.” It began with the first event On May 25. The First Lady and almost 100 local students were at the White House. She’s planned events this summer to get kids moving. They’ll have sports, games and activities led by local groups to help inspire them.

The cause is important to our country’s future health. “Studies find that about 1 in 5 children becomes overweight or obese by age 6, and that more than half of obese children become overweight before the age of 2. Nearly 6 percent of infants younger than six months are overweight, the report says, up from 3.4 percent between 1980 and 2001,” says  an article about the initiative in Huffington Post.

The First Lady is encouraging kids to get at least 60 minutes of exercise each day. Kids aren’t out playing and running around as much as they used to. Instead they’re sitting at home, watching too much TV and playing computer games. While there are a lot of valid reasons for this, we need to change it.

It’s great to see how innovative playgrounds encourage kids to get outside and move around. There are not only more creative playgrounds, but safer playgrounds and playgrounds that can accommodate kids in wheelchairs and with disabilities.

Mrs. Obama walks the talk too – one of the first tasks when her family moved into the White House was to get a playground installed. It’s fun to have young kids in the White House and the girls enjoy playing on it.

Here’s some trivia that we’re especially proud of – bet you didn’t know that Rubberecycle’s rubber mulch is the playground surface the first family chose for their eco-friendly playground.

It’s been 6 years but the playground project is complete and the parents, children and community who worked to build it couldn’t be happier. Children in Spokane, Washington are enjoying a new universal playground. The new playground features a safe, environmentally-friendly and accessible surface made out of rubber.

“The playground, a project of the Spokane Regional Health District, was developed to provide increased physical activity opportunities to children with disabilities.

Parents of children with disabilities helped design the playground. It includes traditional playground elements like slides and swings as well as a climbing wall and a music area with drums and bells. The playground’s surface is flat and made of recycled rubber tiles to accommodate children in wheelchairs or walkers. All equipment is accessible by ramp.

The surface was similar to our rubber bond product that is a smooth, durable surface that doesn’t overheat in the hot summer months. Many community groups worked to ensure a successful project, including: Rotary clubs, the Spokane Regional Health District, Logan Neighborhood Council, Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, Spokane Parks Foundation, Spokane International Airport Fire Department, landscapers and many others pulled together to make the project happen.

The playground will be owned and maintained by Spokane Parks and Recreation. Check out Mission Park, located at 1210 E. Mission Ave., Spokane

I just saw a news report about how many children get hurt on playgrounds each year.  Rubber mulch is one way we contribute to help make playgrounds safer for kids.

Schools hire playground inspectors to look over the equipment for potential problems.

Here are some other interesting facts about playground injuries:

• 2,300 kids are injured every year on school playgrounds
• 5th-graders sustain more injuries than any other group
• Falls are the #1 cause of injury

What to check :

The inspector checks the nuts, screws, bolts and other hardware to make sure it hasn’t come loose. He checks the slides, and pushes on the joints to see if they are solid. Even a hole in the equipment can be a hazard.

Another important spot to check is under the swings. Lots of children fall off swings, so what kind of a surface will they hit? In this picture it looks like the child would fall on hard concrete. There must be something to cushion the fall. Rubber mulch can do a lot to prevent injuries. At Rubberecycle we’ve tested dropping eggs from the top of the playground’s highest point. The egg didn’t break when it hit the rubber surface.

Playground safety should be a top priority at school and at home. Even playground equipment in your backyard should be tested. Parents can look over the set to make sure it’s held together well. Besides these suggestions, parents should watch their kids.

Check out our 7 PlayGround Safety Tips.

Kudos to Cincinnati Parks & Rec for their efforts to recycle, reduce, and reuse in city parks. The city started by replacing the department’s 40-year-old heating and air conditioning system to a more energy efficient model. This step resulted in energy conservation and cost savings.

Another thing they did is replace wood mulch with longer-lasting rubber mulch at Gower Park’s playground. A new design will utilize more green space and decreasing the amount of mulch needed in the future.

The city received more than $11,000 in a grant program “to implement or continue innovative waste reduction and recycling programs that significantly reduced the grantees’ waste stream.” Recycle Sharonville’s goal “was to reduce waste while increasing awareness of recycling and its positive effects on the environment.”

The project included:

*  26 recycling containers placed next to trash cans in public areas with multilingual signs next to those receptacles to promote recycling to all residents;

* distribution of a flyer and brochure, educating residents about the program;

* established a collection system to empty recycling containers at dropoff centers at the Community Center. The materials donated were re-used for craft classes, saving money for projects at many adult and senior classes;

Great job! I hope more cities take note and follow Sharonville Parks and Recreation example.

Source: http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/20100401/NEWS/4010316/1001/NEWS/Reuse++recycle+new+practice+at+Sharonville+parks+and+rec

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I’m in Las Vegas on vacation, so this story caught my eye. Nevada residents have sent about 2 million used tires each year to landfills. Now those tires can be recycled. A new state-of-the-art recycling plant opened in Las Vegas this past December.

The facility takes tires from Nevada and parts of Utah, Arizona and California. Phoenix Recycling Technologies said, “we’re producing commodities from the waste. For each ton we produce, it lowers the environmental impact of producing new materials.”

The end product produced is called “crumb rubber,” and is used as turf dressing on natural grass and on artificial playing surfaces. It’s also an ingredient for rubberized asphalt for roads, material for equestrian arenas (it reduces damage to a horse’s bones, joints, ligaments and soft tissue) and for playground surfaces (imagine what it can do to help children by avoiding injuries).

Other benefits for playgrounds include that the material will hold its color, last longer than other compounds and won’t cause splinters, attract insects or animals, or stain clothing.

Crumb rubber also can be used as a landscape mulch.

“All parts of the tire are recycled with 65 percent returned as crumb rubber, 25 percent scrap steel and 10 percent fiber.”

The company worked with Nevada state Sen. Allison Copening, D-Las Vegas, who introduced legislation to encourage tires to be recycled and ban their disposal in most of the state’s landfills. The legislation doesn’t require recycling in rural areas and bans dumping whole tires in municipal landfills.

While the cost may be higher up front, the recycled tire surfaces are a good value because they last. “Although crumb rubber blends often are more expensive than conventional asphalt, Copening said the durability of the finished product could make it worth writing into construction specifications.”

Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/02/states-first-tire-recycling-plant-opens/

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Image via Wikipedia

I ran across this article about Pittsburgh’s manufacturing sector and how they use recycling. Here’s an interesting fact: ‘73 percent of the aluminum ever produced is still in use today.’

Steel is recycled more, by volume, than any other material and both were recycled in Pittsburgh not so much for the environmental benefits, but for the cost benefits. That’s not unusual. It’s cheaper to melt down old products to make new products than it was to go out and mine the raw materials. If you’ve ever been to a junk yard, that’s the beginning of the reuse, recycle industry.

Cars, refrigerators, washing machines and even parts of Three Rivers Stadium have been used to build buildings and bridges across the country.

Did you know that can of pop in  an aluminum can be sold and back on the shelf as a new can in 60 days?

There’s also a company that freezes rubber to make it brittle. Then they smash the tires to tiny bits. This material is used for synthetic athletic fields, playground surfaces, mulch, horse arena surfaces, etc. Some of the tires are ground up. Interestingly, the rubber mulch is also good for roads because it makes them quieter, more resilient and safer.

It’s inspiring to see the industries who are recycling and building that into the process. They’re saving money and contributing to the health of our planet. RubbeRecycle’s reaction? Nice work Pittsburgh!

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10075/1042930-334.stm?cmpid=business.xml#ixzz0j7F1230R