Matta Products’ softfall surfacing protecting children and the environment

Darryn Dearlove, Business Development Manager for Active Discovery, the Australian distributors of Play Matta™ Products, has shared his view that the New Zealand-based company is demonstrating both social responsibility and innovation through products such as the Play Matta™ Safety Surfacing System.

Dearlove explains that the process, which allows companies to turn what has traditionally being single use plastic waste products into a new product such as safety surfacing for playgrounds, represents a positive way to improve reduce environmental impact.

Dearlove advises “our social responsibility to protect our planet is certainly under the microscope.

“In many professional roles related to design, construction and future planning our decisions in our daily work are increasingly focussed on making choices that support the environmental sustainability of our planet.

“For many, the options in relation to unitary surfacing have appeared relatively limited. “Consideration for the use of recycled materials that have a long-term useful lifespan as well as limiting the use of new materials are some of the high priority points considered by professionals when specifying or selecting softfall surfacing for leisure environments.”

With strong roots in recycling, Play Matta™ uses a technique of turning waste PVC plastics and waste rubber into a two-layered playground surfacing system consisting of impact absorbing rubber shock pads overlaid by PVC modular tiles.

Play Matta™ Products use 100% recycled rubber feedstock in the manufacture of underlying shock pads and recycled PVC feedstock to manufacture the mats. Play Matta tiles are made from up to 98% recycled materials.

Both the tiles and shock pads hold Environmental Choice New Zealand certification. Environmental Choice is a member of GEN. The Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) is a non-profit association of third-party, environmental performance labelling organizations founded in 1994 to improve, promote, and develop the ecolabelling of products and services. GEN currently has 26 members, spanning 57 countries.

Play Matta™ tiles can also be recycled at the end of their useful lifespan which is currently 10 years or more.

Dearlove adds “it takes courage to try something new.

“There are always new products on the market, many claiming to be the next best thing, many end up as a ‘flash-in-the-pan”, available one minute, gone the next. However, there are also those products that have demonstrated long term survival in the market, achieving and often exceeding the performance standards that their manufacturer’s promise.

“There is a growing consideration amongst manufacturers to find environmentally sustainable solutions and the market is increasingly demanding this, especially in Australia.

“It is up to all of us to ask important questions: ‘is this product environmentally sustainable?’; ‘what percentage of it is made from recycled materials?’; ‘can it be recycled at the end of its useful life?’; ‘where is it manufactured?’; ‘how can you validate that the production of it is aligned with best practice in regard to environmental sustainability?’; ‘does the manufacturer have an internationally recognised environmental performance certification?’.

“Innovative manufacturers around the world are partnering with industries that produce waste in an effort to turn this waste into useful products, therefore reducing or completely eliminating the need for this waste to end up in landfill.”

New Zealand-based Matta Products work with Vinyl Council Australia to source scrap PVC cable casings and hospital waste from New Zealand and Australia, which would have otherwise ended up in landfill, to create safety surfacing products. 

Click here to contact Active Discovery via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Supplier Directory.

Images: Play Matta™ installation for an outdoor gym (top), a wheelchair ramp (middle) and from the air (below).