It is essential to ensure that safety surfacing materials are properly installed in every playground, whether it’s located in a school or on an independent site. Failing to meet safety surfacing standards can lead to significant risks and liabilities.

In accordance with the safety guidelines set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), it is mandatory for all playground equipment to be equipped with appropriate safety surfacing to prevent head injuries.

Shockingly, statistics indicate that approximately 600 children are admitted to hospitals daily in the United States due to injuries sustained on playgrounds. To create a safer and more enjoyable playground environment, it is imperative that the ground surface is designed to minimize injuries. Even minor injuries can have long-lasting psychological impacts on children, affecting their mental well-being for years to come.

Playground Surfaces and Safety
Ensuring safe playground surfaces is paramount to child safety. Grass, dirt, and concrete surfaces, once commonly used, now fall short of contemporary safety standards. The banning of these outdated options in the 1980s resulted in a remarkable 45% reduction in child injuries. These surfaces lack the necessary shock-absorbing qualities, increasing the risk of injuries when children play. Furthermore, the effectiveness of grass surfaces is heavily dependent on various environmental factors, making consistent safety hard to guarantee.

Pip safety surfacing
Poured-in-place (PIP) rubber surfacing stands as a highly favoured and widely approved safety solution for children’s playgrounds across the nation. This surface incorporates the blending of recycled rubber, ensuring cleanliness, with the addition of virgin rubber primarily for aesthetic purposes. This rubber mixture is then poured onto a sturdy 4-inch thick substructure, primarily composed of concrete.

Rubber mulch and engineered wood fibres
Rubber mulch and engineered wood fibres have become increasingly popular in recent years for their cost-effectiveness and child-safe properties, making them a preferred choice for surfacing in school playgrounds and children’s parks. Rubber tire mulch is categorized as a loose-fill material and typically necessitates the use of containment boundaries beneath play equipment.

While these materials offer numerous advantages, it is important to note that there are concerns regarding rubber mulch. Some studies suggest that tire mulches may contain toxic compounds that could potentially exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma over time.

Jelly bean play mulch surfacing
Jelly Bean Munich offers a budget-friendly solution that is exceptionally easy to offload from a truck and install on the ground, making it an ideal replacement for traditional playground surfacing materials. It incurs minimal ongoing maintenance expenses. Additionally, despite the relatively higher initial investment, jelly bean play mulch surfacing proves to be a more cost-effective and safer choice in the long term when compared to rubber mulch.