New Playground with Rubber Bark™

Coastline Church in Carlsbad, California just got a little more kid-friendly with this new playground. It uses our signature Rubber Bark™ as groundcover, to help keep the kiddos bruise free, and able to play on the equipment safely. Rubber Bark™ is manufactured with recycled tires, and is virtually chemical-free. It has been tested for safety procedures, and is ideal for playgrounds. Interested in getting your own playground with some Rubber Bark™? Find out how to order here!

Our bark comes in great playground colors too! Try our blue, brown, redwood, black, or forest green.

Rubber Bark™ Works Well with Pools

Rubber Bark™ is great for outlining pools, ponds and other standing water sources, because it doesn't soak in water, like soil, or wood mulch, and it floats!

Check out customer Robert's new landscaping near his snazzy pool in San Diego.

This is just one of the ways Rubber Bark's intuitive design and purpose can work for your outdoor and landscaping needs.

More info is available at Rubber Bark's recently redesigned website. And make sure to calculate your costs for Rubber Bark™ using your space measurements with Rubber Bark's handy calculator.

Happy swimming!

Aerial Photo of Rubber Bark™

Ever wondered what Rubber Bark™ looked like from high in the sky? Well, here is your chance! The Mather Federal Aviation Building in Northern California recently received this photo of its landscape improvements.

All the blue, green, and brown, surrounding the central white buildings is Rubber Bark™!  

Along with this photo, came a nice note:

"We were lucky enough to receive a recent aerial shot sent to us from Digital Sky Aerial Imaging this morning, as you can see, the landscape upgrades are almost complete, and look fantastic!  We have been receiving
a lot of compliments and accolades for the progress." 

It's always extra special to see large entities such as Mather Aviation go green with recycled products like Rubber Bark™. 

Nice new patio & garden with Rubber Bark!

Below are a few snapshots one of Rubber Bark's customers sent to us after he used about 14 bags of our signature mulch. Looks perfect for lounging on a breezy summer day!

Want to transform your backyard/front yard/patio/play space into a summer wonderland? Let us know! 

Want to see more photos of customer's transformations using Rubber Bark™ (plus all our community projects)? Go to our Flickr page! 

Scrap Tire News on Synthetic Turf Fields

A new edition of Scrap Tire News indicates that, using CalRecycle data, there are virtually no health risks for outdoor fields made of artificial turf. Check out a piece of the article below, and support companies, such as Rubber Bark™, that make products that are not only eco-friendly, but also completely safe.

Playgrounds and Synthetic Turf Fields There have been concerns about the health implications of the use of recycled tire crumb in playgrounds and in synthetic turf athletic fields. In response to these concerns, EPA conducted a Scoping Level Field Monitoring Study of Synthetic Turf Fields and Playgrounds. The final report was issued in 2009 and concluded that on average, concentrations of components monitored in this study were below levels of concern. To supplement this study’s limited data, EPA met with state and local representatives in 2010 to review other available field monitoring studies including a 2010 study conducted by the state of Connecticut which concluded that exposures and risks were not elevated (relative to what is commonly found in outdoor air) for either children or adults using the fields. A 2010 report by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery examined the possible human health risks of outdoor athletic fields made from artificial turf containing recycled crumb rubber with respect to skin abrasions, bacteria harbored by the turf, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. The report concluded these fields do not pose a serious public concern, with the possible exception of an increased skin abrasion rate on artificial turf relative to natural turf. At this point, EPA does not believe that the field monitoring data collected provides evidence of an elevated health risk resulting from the use of recycled tire crumb in playgrounds or in synthetic turf athletic fields. Ultimately, he use of recycled tire crumb or any other playground materials is a state and local decision.

New Before & After Project Using Rubber Bark™

Rubber Bark™ just received word from one of our great customers about a months-long backyard project that included putting in some Rubber Bark™ around the yard. Customer Isabella had this to say about her three super sacks of bark she used for the project: 

"We are extremely satisfied with the Rubber Bark. Nothing to maintain and it always looks very nice and clean. We are looking forward to have some more Rubber Bark projects done in the future at the other side of the house and behind the wood fence next to our vegetable garden and even perhaps in the front of the house." 


She also hinted that she wanted to put some colorful sculptures on the Rubber Bark™ to enhance the garden feel, such as a rock river with a wooden bridge or rock/ceramic turtles hanging out on the colorful bark. 

Check out some of the photos below to see the transformation, which started last fall, and was finished up just a couple of weeks ago! 

For more photos of the transformation, go to Rubber Bark's Flickr page! 

 

In Need of a Few Good Yelpers

Rubber Bark™ is currently trying to up its social media exposure, and we need all the friendly folks' help on the buzz who love to Yelp. If you are not familiar with Yelp, it is a website devoted to user reviews of pretty much anything under the sun. And Rubber Bark™ has its own profile too! Although we need our great customers to let the internet masses know how great Rubber Bark™ is.

So, if you, or someone you know has used Rubber Bark™ for any project, garden, yard, playground, what have you, write a quick review on Yelp and tell the world what you think about it. We'd really appreciate it, and your review will forever live in the infinite space of the world wide web.

Thanks.

Rubber Bark's tables and benches help community project

We just received word from Leadership Fresno that it has used Rubber Bark's tables and benches for their community garden project! Here is an excerpt about their unusual path to the project last month.

"This Saturday, the Al Radka Community Garden in Southeast Fresno will receive a much needed make-over with supplies coming from a very unlikely source— Illegal marijuana farms. The donation of thousands of yards of irrigation equipment and gardening tools is a result of a partnership between Fresno Metro Ministry and Leadership Fresno Class 27’s community service project."


Below are some of the photos of the project with Rubber Bark's tables and benches.

Rubber Bark™ by the pool, in time for summer

Like peaches and cream, or BBQ on a sunny day, Rubber Bark™ and pools are a great fit, especially for a summer landscaping project. Case in point: Paul's backyard is a perfect blend of pool side fun and chic landscaping, including Rubber Bark™.  Here is Paul's backyard concept and opinion on Rubber Bark™. 

"One of the nicest things about Rubber Bark™ is that it does not stick to wet feet. I have seven grandchildren who are always stepping on the Rubber Bark™ after getting out of the pool and the Rubber Bark™ never sticks to their wet feet. If I had used wood chips not only would the pool be filled with wood bark, we would have had a lot of splinters to remove from little feet.

In the over three years of having this product we have only had at most three or four pieces of the bark in the pool. My gardener blows the leaves off the Rubber Bark™ and even then we have no Rubber Bark™ in the pool. I have moved the product to install some lights and the soil was moist under the Rubber Bark™.

I installed the Rubber Bark™ directly onto the ground and have only had a couple of weeds pop through where the Rubber Bark™ is thin. I have just ordered another pallet to increase the thickness in the a few areas that are thin, which should solve the weed problem. The blue ground cover is recycled glass, which has three high intensity LED up-lights shining through the glass."

Great ideas Paul. Thanks so much for sharing. Below is a picture of Paul's beautiful pool area. 

Redwood Rubber Bark™ used in a pool area

Life Before and After Rubber Bark™

One of our customers from San Diego was kind enough to send us before and after installing Rubber Bark™ photos of his yard. Check them out!

before

after

Mike says,  "The stuff is great, soft to walk on, good color and I don't think it will blow away."

We are happy you think so! The color and texture do make his yard more lively, don't you think?

Rubber Bark™ TDP Testimonial

Below is a testimonial about the wonders of Rubber Bark™ and the CalRecycle Tire-Derived Product Grants. If you haven't checked out the grants yet, they are a great opportunity to jump start your city/county/private playground/landscaping project. 

Hi,

As part of our industry wide outreach to architects who specialize in schools, we have also been presenting the TBAP story to the County meetings of school facility planners and managers.

Today we presented in Alameda County.

During the presentation Lowell Hoxie, Facilities Manager, Sunol Glen Unified School District, comes over to your  Rubber Bark™ display box, picked it up and proceeded to tell the group about how he had used a TDP grant to redo a playground using Rubber Bark from Ag Link, Inc. Both the product and the service were first class, according to Mr. Hoxie.

I can't tell you how great it feels to get that kind of endorsement from the audience, instant credibility for the product, for the industry, and for CalRecycle.

Thanks for representing the TBAP program in such a professional way.

Regards, 

Mike Tinney

Thanks Mr. Hoxie and Mr. Tinney! 

TDP is "first class" 

Customer testimonial of Rubber Bark™

We recently received a customer testimonial that we liked so much, we decided to share it with you on the Buzz.

Chuck, from Kern County, had been working on a playground project and decided Rubber Bark™ was one of the missing pieces for his plan. Here’s what he told us once he was finished, “The bark worked out great. My two-year-old grandson loves playing in it and grandma likes the added fall protection. We think it looks great. It really does make the whole project better.”

Chuck saw Rubber Bark™ at the Kern County Fair in California a few years ago, but held off on using it for his playground project until he became a grandpa. As an employee of Kern County Waste Management, Chuck knew he wanted to use a recycled material for his groundcover.

Below is a photo of Chuck’s wonderful new playground. Thanks, Chuck, for giving us a shout out and informing us about your project!

Do you have a story about your Rubber Bark™ experience? Let us know! Contact us at rubberbark@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post.