Repsol YPF

Slips and falls are the most common accidents in swimming pool areas and children’s parks. In both places, choosing paving that absorbs the impact is the best way to enjoy a calm summer, without surprises or unpleasant incidents. 

The best material for these purposes is recycled rubber, from reused tyres, which has been ground and selected, and mixed with binding agents (chemical components) and pigments to give it some colour. Most of the materials currently made include chemical compounds at some stage of the production process, which improve the quality of the finished product. Flooring and coating materials, furniture and many household items are produced using chemical components, without which it would be impossible to make them. 

Recycled rubber tiles are perfect for children’s play areas, paving around swimming pools, roof terraces and patios, and for creating safe surfaces in the garage, in which more and more people are creating play areas for their children. It is currently sold in different formats, sizes and colours so you can choose the option which best meets your aesthetic needs. 

Advantages of rubber paving

The main advantage of this rubber flooring is that it is a safe surface, such that its impact-absorbing function has become one of its best properties. Furthermore, recycled rubber tiles are resistant, hard-wearing, non-slip, water permeable (they dry quickly), non-flammable and barely require any maintenance. They do not change colour due to the effects of solar radiation, neither do they get excessively hot, so you can even walk on them in hot temperatures. 

In children’s play areas, this flooring has no competition, since the fact that it is a soft material reduces the risk of children hurting themselves if they fall or slip, as happens with the hardest floors (earthenware, ceramic…). It beats the natural alternatives such as grass, since this needs constant care and requires frequent watering in the summer, and artificial grass, which is harder to install and is more expensive than recycled rubber. It is, however, worth clarifying that recycled rubber is used to make the filling for artificial grass. 

Sustainable product

Along with the advantages mentioned above, it is important to mention its contribution in the area of sustainability, since by recovering the recycled rubber for this and other purposes which are currently being researched, we avoid the environmental issues related to disposing of, incinerating and dumping used tyres. 

For some years, the Valencia Biomechanics Institute headed up the European project Criosinter, the objective of which is to develop an innovative tyre recycling process that improves the quality of the resulting rubber, as well as opening up new channels for using this material in sectors such as footwear (soles) and the car accessory industry (mudguards, bumpers, mats…). The Criosinter project team is also working on extending the use of this material in the paving sector, and promising results have been achieved in the areas of pavements, soundproofing materials, street furniture and public buildings. 

Some of the project’s conclusions reveal that the energy consumption required to manufacture a product using recycled rubber is approximately 66% less than when using virgin rubber. There are also significant differences between both materials in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. By using recycled rubber the emission of pollutant gases reduces by 47%. 

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