Recycling works in recreation

Parks & Recreation, Jan, 1994 by Jane Buckley

The department's decision to use chipped rubber safety surfacing on playgrounds in hell of traditional sand or gravel surfaces was based, in large part, on product performance. "Thus far," says Strong, "the surfacing has been in place for six years with no problem. Typically, sand and gravel would have been replaced several times by now." It is such long-term considerations that offset initially higher investments, making recycled products equal or lower in price than their virgin-based counterparts.

Impressive Products

The array of products available for use in park and recreation facilities is impressive--and reaches far beyond bathroom tissues and drawing paper. Imagine, if you will, a park designed to incorporate as many recycled-content products and elements as possible.

You pull into the parking lot paved with glassphalt, a mix of recycled glass and traditional paving materials. That pothole in the corner spot is gone; it was filled over the winter with a new cold-patching material, made from old roofing asphalt, that exceeds federal specifications and holds in both hot and cold weather. Your car is pulled right up to the bumper guard, made of crumbed rubber from old tires.

Walking down the path, you notice the shrubbery has fresh mulch around it to protect it from frost; the mulch is made of wood chips derived from collected yard waste and Christmas trees. You pause long enough to throw some trash into the waste basket, careful to deposit your glass soda bottle in the recycling receptacle; both receptacles, made from rotation-molded recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles (i.e., your recycled two-liter soda bottles), are lined with garbage bags made from recycled film plastics.

Heading to the recreation center, with its new siding made of recycled plastics, you see a group of children emerging from a painting class, proudly displaying masterpieces drawn on 100 percent post-consumer content paper. The class moves toward swing sets that are anchored to the ground by poles made of recycled ferrous metals, with seats made from recycled tires. The playground surfacing is made from 100 percent post-consumer tires.

The center's weight room is lit by 90-watt fluorescent light bulbs that save more than six and one-half cents for every ten hours of use (totalling more than $200 per year per bulb). You admire the new weight room floor, made with 100 percent post-consumer waste, and the acoustical ceiling tile, made with 70 percent post-consumer plastic and paper composite. You work out for 30 minutes, according to the wall clock, also made from 60 percent post-consumer high density polyethylene (HDPE) and 40 percent recovered HDPE plastics (i.e., recycled milk jugs and detergent containers), then go to wash up in the restroom.

The bathroom is furnished with low-flush toilets, reducing water usage by as much as 75 percent. Showers and faucets are equipped with flow-restrictors, reducing water usage from 20 gallons to nine gallons on the average five-minute shower. The toilet paper is made from 100 percent recycled paper, as are the facial tissues and paper towels, with 95 percent post-consumer waste.