Great Home Improvement Tips

Archive for the ‘Landscaping’ Category

For many years, the increase in rubber tire usage, and subsequent waste and mounting rubber hills in landfills became a great concern to the entire world. The environment was in danger and the move to find alternative measures to throwing the tires away began. Thankfully, as it turned out, there were many ways in which the tires could be recycled and turned into something useful and environmentally sound. Some of those recycled purposes include carpeting, roads, flooring and rubber mulch. The impurities are removed during the recycling process leaving a safe and non-hazardous product behind.

Rubber mulch not only saves the tires from being tossed into landfills, it also helps to prevent the growth of weeds, doesn’t attract insects, protects the soil below from losing it’s nutrients and creates a beautiful landscape. Rubber mulch is available in many stylish colors to add beauty to flower beds and other areas of landscapes.

While rubber mulch is more expensive than it’s wood counterpart, it’s also much more durable and will last without fading or breaking down. Because it’s durability will eventually make up for the higher cost of the rubber mulch (approximately $14 per cubic foot) in comparison to the to the much lower price (an average of $1.50 per cubic foot) of wood mulch, it’s quite cost effective.

Not only is rubber mulch environmentally friendly in that it creates less tire waste, it’s also heavier and more resilient to the elements that wood mulch.  While heavy winds may slightly move the rubber mulch, but probably not, the wood will be blown and scattered. While heavy rains will cause wood mulch to float away in puddles, rubber mulch is not likely to budge.

One important note on the slightly negative side of rubber mulch is it’s ability to burn hotter than wood mulch and the fact that it’s fire is harder to put out as well. Rubber mulch is therefore not a great idea for smokers yards however, if just scattered around trees or in areas where there’s no contact with matches then it’s still fine. Also, because of the possibility of small steel or nylon threads being mixed in with the recycled rubber mulch, it’s not very safe for playgrounds (although it’s often used in them) as it may harm children who fall on it.

Some brands of rubber mulch include DuPont, Vigoro, Rubberific, and Majestic. The rubber mulch is very natural looking and comes in neutral wood tones as well as in fun colors such as blue, green and gray. For more information and to purchase rubber mulch, check out the internet for the greatest selection and pricing options.