New for Spring

Recycled rubber products are making their way into more landscapes whether residential, commercial or municipal

From the limited choice of black rubber mulch, dog bone-style pavers in black or brick red and one-size tree rings available when recycled rubber garden and landscape products were introduced in the early 1990s, today’s recycled tire rubber landscape and garden products are anything but limited—either by style, color or function.

Once a tough sell to landscape and garden supply buyers at big box stores, garden supply catalogs or to public park designers and architects, recycled rubber products can be found on gardening and nursery center shelves, in big box stores, online and in gardening supply catalogs.

In fact, Gardeners Supply Catalog (GSC) is featuring several new recycled rubber products of its own design. The company’s recycled tire rubber weed block mat gets top billing highlighting both its recycled tire rubber content and the GSC design label.

And who could deny you need a second look to discern that Stomp Stone’s recycled rubber flagstone pavers aren’t the real thing.  GSC’s new, elegant mosaic stepping stone pattern takes recycled rubber to a whole new level.  And, oh, the edging – do you like scalloped, or log rolls, a brick look or granite-like stone; lock-together or pound-in style? The choices are many and they’re all recycled tire rubber.

Sophisticated, high-end looking planters, umbrella stands and mulch in a palette of richly colored recycled rubber that blends into any setting are testament to the incredible properties of recycled tire rubber and even more so to the incredible ingenuity, hard work, persistence and commitment of the tire recycling industry to transform end-of-life tires into sustainable, safe, useful products.

So what got us here.

Processing tires is labor, equipment and cost-intensive.  It’s not a pretty job.  The show Dirty Jobs featured tire processing and recycling.  But tire processors and recyclers are a tough lot. Led by equipment and machinery manufacturers who listened, made changes, saw the value of tire derived materials, tire recyclers worked to achieve quality recycled rubber that could meet the demands of ASTM, ISSO, IPEMA and other certifications.

Technology too, played a part, with advances in binders that hold the rubber together for durability and maintain rubber’s resilience for a soft, safe surface.

Ongoing development in coloring  technology has truly changed the color of rubber and opened up uses and markets once “unthinkable” for recycled tire rubber.

With consumers more attuned to sustainability and environmental attributes in the products they buy and use every day, recycled tire rubber tire rubber landscape and garden products are becoming first choices.

© Scrap Tire News, April 2023