The Green Revolution is all the rage today, as companies come up with innovative ways to recycle. Rubber, in particular, is being recycled more and more, with second and even third lives. Rubber is a substance that is easy to recycle due to its hardiness and the many uses it can have. Rubber tires are one of the main sources of recycled rubber, as tons and tons of rubber is given new life rather than rotting away.

Recycled Rubber Bracelets

Imagine that, rubber as jewelry! Uncommongoods.com offers a unique holiday gift for the nature-lover on your list. Rubber bracelets designed by jewelry designer Elizabeth Hake are made from bicycle tires and other recycled rubber. They feature funky shapes and chrome embellishments that are a real statement. The bracelets are well priced at forty dollars.

Rubber Mulch for Playgrounds

Rubber mulch is the latest and best in playground flooring. It comes in the form of chips, or a solid version known as rubber bond. Playsafer rubber mulch is a preferred brand, as it is proven to offer superior playground safety, with extra shock absorbency. Rubber flooring also comes in various colors, is odorless, and does not stain kids’ clothes.

Rubber Pavers

Recycled rubber is also found in the flooring industry in the form of pavers and mats. Tiles made from rubber are durable and water resistant and can be used to easily and cost effectively pave garden walkways, driveways, pool sides, and other areas. Rubber mats are popular for use on decks and in mudrooms. There is much variety in this field, with flooring that interlocks for easy self installation. The rubber pavers come in designs of bricks, octagonal tiles, and much more.

With a large amount of recycled rubber products on the market today, it is easy to help the environment while achieving your personal goals of beautiful products that are also affordable.

As the Green Revolution keeps gaining steam, it is spreading to all areas of daily living, from household products to the way we eat. There are some that are gaining instant popularity for their eco-friendly aspects as well as for their aesthetic appeal and other features.

Rubber Mulch playground surface
Playgrounds of old were built on grass, blacktop, and cement. In recent years, wood chips have also been used. The playground flooring of the future is Playsafer rubber mulch. Rubber mulch is made of used rubber tires, saving space in landfills, and helping to recycle used goods. Tire mulch is used mainly for playground flooring, but is also seen in horse arenas and for landscaping purposes. The new and improved playground surfacing comes in a variety of colors that never fades or weathers, and needs little or no maintenance. It also carries no odor, and allows kids to play without getting dusty, muddy, and dirty. Rubber mulch is every mother’s dream.

Method Cleaning Supplies
Method makes cleaning cool. Founded by college friends Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, Method soaps got their first big break when they were picked up by Target. Today they are sold in major retailers nationwide. Method soaps are eco-friendly, and “as pleasing to the nose as they are to the eye.” They are packaged in innovative and pleasing packaging that is, of course, eco-friendly.

Laminate Flooring
Hardwood is a flooring of choice for many, but it is very costly, and can take a toll on the rate of deforestation. Laminate is the new hardwood. Laminate flooring is made of synthetic materials, combined with some wood shavings, and can be made to imitate the look of virtually any flooring. It is a lot more affordable than a hardwood floor, and easy to maintain. Laminate flooring may also be known as Pergo, a European company that came up with the concept of laminate floors.

With time, our lifestyles will undoubtedly change to reflect an effort to go green.

Strategically placed landscaping and flowing ferns are beautiful additions to any home or property, but no garden grows on its own. As any gardener or landscaper knows, a well tended garden takes hours of work and effort. A big part of making sure your garden is healthy and thriving comes with proper mulching. Mulching helps with weed control, water retention, and to keep plant roots cool in the summer and warm in the winter. There are numerous types of mulching, good for various purposes.

The newest and most popular form of mulch is rubber mulch. Made of recycled rubber tires, it is good for permanent walkways, driveways, or playgrounds. Rubber mulch comes in many colors, and keeps the planet eco-friendly by giving a purpose to old tires that would otherwise end up in landfills. Rubber landscaping is less porous than the conventional wood chips, allowing water to flow straight down to the plants without absorbing any moisture. However, not too long ago there were those who feared that heavy metals from old tires could leach into the soil. This has been disproved, but there are still those who discourage the use of rubber mulch around plants.

Leaf mulch is made of leaves that have been allowed to rot over approximately a year. Leaf mulch is good for moisture retention, and has some important minerals. However, it is best when used in conjunction with compost. It is important to ensure that the leaves have been fully composted; putting chopped up leaves around plants will not benefit the plants in any way.

Alfalfa hay or pea straw are excellent sources of minerals, and are great for heavy feeding plants. When mixed into the soil they can improve the structure of the soil, and neither have the weed problem that regular hay has. However, this form of mulch should be used sparingly as it is expensive.

Bark and wood chips are great for decorative use, and as a soil covering. It is a good idea to place a layer of compost under the wood chips. Bark breaks down slowly and does not have to be replenished annually, but wood can easily rot, and with time it weathers to a grayish color. On a whole, wood chips are only good around mature plants. More and more gardening experts are using rubber mulch in place of wood chips.

There are numerous mulch options for many landscaping needs. It is important to research which option will best suit your garden.

More than 90% of the playgrounds are considered unsafe. This is largely due to inadequate and poor surfaces. Due to this more than 200, 00 playground injuries lead to the hospital every year. The rubber mulch used for a playground should therefore fulfill some basic requirements like:

• It should be non-toxic 
• Should stay in place
• Should be odor free 
• Should be quick drying
• Should be non staining/non abrasive
• Should not freeze
• Should be ADA approved 
• Should not breed or attract insect
• Requires minimum maintenance
• Guaranteed to last a lifetime
• Reduce dust and mud
• Should not rot or mold

 LANDSCAPING

Neatly mulched beds improve the appearance of any landscape. But, apart from appearance enhancement, it provides many other benefits. Mulch protects the plant root systems and adds much needed nutrients to the soil   Mulch slows the erosion of the topsoil. Though applying mulch may seem like a chore, it can actually save effort later in the season.  Mulch helps to prevent weeds and retain moisture, thus one can enjoy the garden than spending time picking the weeds.  For the mulch to look its best, one must choose the best material and apply it properly. 

The use of rubber mulch has been on the rise for the last few months for a variety of uses.  First of all, it is a byproduct obtained from used rubber tires.  Old rubber tires had once become an environmental hazard as millions of them were getting accumulated all over our country.  But the invention that the rubber treads of the tires can be put to use as rubber mulch saved the situation from getting out of hand.

Rubber mulch is superior from other mulches like leaves, wood shavings, etc on many counts.  Unlike organic mulches, it would not decay.  It prevents weed and pest growth too.  In addition, due to its durability, it would serve you for long years thereby removing the necessity for regular replacements.

Being available all over the country, you need not worry about how to obtain the material.  You can look up in Internet stores or local vendors depending on your convenience.  Those who used rubber mulch once would vouch for its durability, usability and convenience of the material.  New avatars of the ubiquitous material like colored mulch, playground mulch etc are also gaining widespread acceptance among the populace due to their versatility and affordability.

When we look at the things that recycled rubber is being used for today, there are quite a lot of them, but are there enough?

There are things like rubber mulch, containers (large and small), rubber compounds to cover playgrounds and other types of flooring and many more things, but are we really using recycled rubber to its full potential?

We could have furniture that is partly made from recycled rubber, as long as it is coated with a flame retardant substance. What about using it in the stage building industry? These are just two ideas that I’m sure would need a lot more thought and would probably never happen, but why are they not worth thinking about?

There are so many other different uses for recycled rubber, that no one has even thought of yet and there is money making opportunities out there, even one which while writing this I have thought of myself, but I’m not going to tell you yet, because I want to check it out first.

How about the fairings on motorcycles? Okay they may weigh a bit more than the usual type of lightweight things that are used to make your bike go faster, but they would not smash to bits when hit, causing more destruction and pain than necessary. Golf carts, there is an idea, they don’t go fast, there not prone to having accidents and they are not viably eco friendly in the way they are made. After all most of them are made out of plastic or fiber glass.

If you can make a sturdy container, that is going to be put on a ship and bashed about in rough seas. Then why not make a pair of crutches out of recycled rubber? If not the crutches themselves, then what about the grips on the handles or the bits on the bottom to stop you from slipping about? They are made of rubber any way, so why not recycled rubber?

There has to be thousands more things that we could use recycled rubber for and we need to start using recycled rubber for these non-existent things or we are going to be left with piles of it, or even putting it into our atmosphere, which we are trying to stop by recycling it, aren’t we? So let’s find some more uses for it.

Using recycled tires, or whole tires in your garden décor, is a really great thing to do to help the environment and believe it or not your plants!

Using whole tires as garden containers, actually helps keep your plants warm in the winter months, as they help keep the soil warm, and the therefore keeping frost away from the roots. You can also use whole tires to create swings for children. You should be able to find plenty of places and people who would be happy to give you their old useless tires for free.

Of course, there are only so many whole tires that you can place in your back garden, whether as garden containers or play swings, before it starts to look like some sort of army assault course! But there are others ways you can use recycled tires in your garden by using a sprinkler hose or rubber soil, which are both made from recycled tires.

There are recycled sprinkler hoses on the market, that are made from 65% recycled tires, that can be very efficient and environmentally friendly way to water your plants, with the pin holes running along their surface, dispersing water over your plants.

You may have heard on the grapevine that rubber mulch is bad for your plants and soil, but let me tell you now that most plants actually benefit from zinc, and the small amounts of chemicals in rubber soils, are mainly removed in the process of creating it, so there are literally no chemicals left to leech into the soil and kill your plants, as the naysayers would have you believe.

If you are worried about your more ‘delicate’ plants, then you can consider using rubber mulch as borders around your trees and shrubs, or as garden borders to give an extra dimension and color to your garden, but talking to a rubber mulch expert should also put your mind at rest – you can find some experts right here: http://www.rubbermulch.com

Almost any tire can be recycled, including passenger vehicle tires (cars, motorbikes, buses and even airplanes) and commercial trucks and trailers. So you can imagine that the amount of these tires that cannot be reused because they are too worn down, or suffered irreparable damage is phenomenal.

First of all the rubber recycling process involves the collection of these discarded tires. Tires left on landfill sites or burn harm the environment, so a much better way is to recycle this abundance of rubber. A whole host of new markets have opened up recently to make good use of this rubber, one being the tire mulch industry. Recycling rubber tires not only helps the environment, but the economy too, as people need to be employed for the recycling process of rubber.

To make tire mulch the rubber from tires needs to be made into a granular substance, with all the steel and other fiber removed. The whole process is called devulcanization. The tires need to be shredded, and then they are passed through the devulcanization process, which means the rubber does not lose its desirable properties of elasticity and insulation – essential elements of tire mulch used for playground surfaces, landscapes and equine surfacing.

The rubber has to be treated with heat, chemicals and softening agents to keep these elasticity and insulation properties, so that the tire mulch can be used for its intended purposes. It takes time and expertise to get this process just right.

As I have already mentioned, this is a great way to recycle a common waste product, which left in its current state is very harmful to the environment. So make sure if you have any discarded tires, you get them to a recycling facility. After all, there are only so many tires that you can make into tire swings, or ‘interesting’ places to plant flowers in!

To see what tire mulch looks like in its finished form, a great site to visit is Rubber Mulch

A friend told me about this experience the other day and I think it was rather poignant.

Walking around the other day was very interesting, the scenery, what I could see of it was beautiful, the soda cans were being used by young snail’s as a playground, plastic bags in the hedgerows that rats where using to play hide and seek with, and multi colored bags flying up in the air creating what some might consider as modern art in our trees surrounding the environment.

The snails, seemed to be enjoying themselves especially, the one who was stuck, kind of half way in, and half way out. He was wriggling about faster than I have ever seen a snail move, in his natural environment.

My dog had found a pizza box and started to chew on it until every single piece, had been slobbered on or decimated. Thinking I would like to see something nicer, I decided to go to a local reservoir, on route I thought, would be as nice as it would have been, like any other time, although I hadn’t been for quite a while, and the environment had changed considerably.

It really is a beautiful walk, there’s a path that the trees, seem to hug you as you walk through, and under them, you carry yourself along this tunnel of wilderness, with the odd bicycle thrown into the hedge, a few other cans of pop and alcohol decorating the scenery, with the glisten every now and then of a ring pull.

Ooh! I thought, looking too where my dog had started to sniff round a fence post that had smashed glass around the bottom of it, I’d better put you on the lead, and why don’t people want to look after the environment any more.

Pick up rubbish take it home or put it in a bin near their home, even better, not drop it at all, life for our environment would be that much nicer. So I picked up what I could and used one of my dogs poop bags to put the rubbish in, to carry till I found a bin.

I guess what that person was saying, is that our environment needs to be looked after by us, as well as our local authorities. After all it is our environment.

If I had seen a discard tire, I would have made sure it got into the hands of the people at Rubber Mulch, so it could be recycled and put to good use.

Following from a recent blog post – Rubber Mulch FAQ, here are some more questions that are often asked about using rubber mulch in your garden.

Why is rubber mulch a better alternative to wood mulch?

To start of with, rubber mulch is a really environmentally friendly type of matter to have in your garden, and an indicator to all people who see it, that you are helping the environment!

But I expect, you are more interested in the whether rubber mulch can actually do a better job than wood mulch. Well test results from ConsumerReports.org show that rubber mulch has a lot of staying power, even when you flood it with hose, or direct a leaf blower at the rubber mulch it does not shift. The same, I’m afraid cannot be said for wood mulch, which floated off and blew all over the place.

Rubber mulch will not provide nutrients to the soil, like wood mulch, but it does protect against weeds, and a worthy mulch to use around perennials and trees. That, and rubber mulch is guaranteed for a lifetime (well Rubber Recycle’s Landscape mulch is), so it is really easy to maintain, unlike the annual wood mulch replacement hassle!

How do I put rubber mulch on my garden?

Rubber mulch is very easy to put on your garden in 5 easy steps.

1. First choose a color of rubber mulch that compliments your garden. You can pop over to Rubber Mulch for some great choices.
2. Clear the area that you want to mulch by getting rid of pebbles, twigs and any old wooden mulch.
3. Get rid of any existing weeds and treat the area with herbicide
4. Lay a weed fabric over the area, to prevent any weed growth. Notes this most not be plastic or you will suffocate any thing that will grow there
5. Lay 1 to 2 inch layer of rubber mulch over the area. That’s it – you are done!