Household Items Can Build Sustainable, Recycled Playgrounds

By Sarah Jaclyn Hertrick-Mutter, MPA

The morning routine of shampooing your hair, brushing your teeth, and driving to work, probably does little to elicit thoughts of how to reduce our environmental impact. It is also likely that you’re not considering sustainable playground materials while pouring milk into your morning coffee. With busy mornings, it is completely understandable that environmental stewardship is not at the forefront of our minds early in the day. But what if it was? What would that look like and how could it benefit our communities?

In recent decades, we have witnessed a trend towards sustainability marked by sustainable engineering practices and green lifestyle choices. It is now time to change how we think about plastic. Plastic in many forms-even a shampoo bottle and milk jug-can be a durable, valuable, and reusable resource. 

Many of us grew up in communities that promoted recycling, but reusing plastic and thinking about it as a valuable resource in a circular economy is a newer concept. Thanks to reusing recycled plastics, many common household items can be repurposed to create fun playgrounds for communities to enjoy. 

Sustainable playgrounds became a reality when companies began looking to make more eco-friendly products thereby reducing their reliance on traditional materials like metal and wood. Putting “reuse and recycle” into action, companies are taking recyclable plastics and reusing them to build playgrounds. Specifically, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastics that are found in common household items like containers used for milk, shampoo, soap and detergent. 

HDPE’s are one of the easiest materials to recycle. They maintain structure through a wide variety of climates and meet the standard requirements for LEED certification. It has even been shown that HDPE’s can be recycled and further processed at least 10 times under controlled conditions. Playgrounds made from recycled plastics are more durable than those made from traditional lumber or steel. No more rust, splitting and rotting, and picking out splinters!

Benefits of Recycled Playgrounds

Plastic Production has increased exponentially from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015, with production expected to double by 2050. Plastic causes major environmental issues through waste and pollution. Using recycled plastics for sustainable playground equipment, demands less effort, is less costly, reduces the amount of waste in landfills significantly, and ultimately creates a safer and healthier environment. 

Diverting waste from landfills is not the only benefit of using recycled plastics for playground equipment. There are many environmental and financial benefits such as:

• They do not contain harmful compounds and do not contaminate the park

• Can be processed and reused to make new items later

• They are non-toxic

• Reduce deforestation 

• Reduce wildlife fatalities 

• They require no maintenance

• Often last 50 years

• They are easy to clean

With only about 9% of plastics ever produced being recycled, we still have a lot of work to do before being zero-waste. Reducing plastic pollution through sustainable, eco-friendly business practices is a start. However, the ultimate goal would be designing single-use plastics entirely out of the system though the pillars of circularity.

Interested in recycling locations near you? Enter your zipcode at iwanttoberecycled.org. to learn about local recycling centers.