Playground rubber mulch can be very appealing to certain types of gardeners. Like crushed stone, it's longlasting; unlike crushed stone, you can buy playground rubber mulch in all sorts of wild colors, such as teal! But aesthetics aside, is playground rubber mulch suitable for use in the landscape? Is it safe to use around plants?
I'm not a chemist, so I won't attempt to provide you with a definitive answer on how safe playground rubber mulch is for plants. But what I will do is bring together a few resources that express skepticism regarding the use of playground rubber mulch in the landscape. My objective in doing so is to spur you on to begin researching playground rubber mulch for yourself. At the very least, a healthy skepticism regarding the use of playground rubber mulch around edible plants would seem to be in order.
June Fletcher of "The Wall Street Journal" lists the pros and cons of playground rubber mulch, as compared to wood products used in mulching. Here is a summary of her findings:
- Pros:
- Playground rubber mulch doesn't wash away in rainstorms.
- Playground rubber mulch doesn't attract insects.
- Playground rubber mulch doesn't rot.
- Cons:
- Playground rubber mulch looks artificial.
- Playground rubber mulch costs more.
- Playground rubber mulch may be harmful to plants.
Expanding on this last point, Fletcher writes that "Rufus L. Chaney, an environmental chemist at the U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research Service, says that his research shows that small amounts of zinc in rubber will leach into soil over time." The resulting "chemical overload" could kill plants.
If you think the above is a harsh indictment of playground rubber mulch, Linda Chalker-Scott, Ph.D., ups the ante. Chalker-Scott is an Extension Horticulturist for Washington State Univeristy and has nothing good whatever to say about playground rubber mulch. She summarizes her findings as follows:
- Playground rubber mulch "is not as effective" as organic choices (such as wood bark) for weed control.
- Playground rubber mulch "is highly flammable and difficult to extinguish once it is burning."
- Playground rubber mulch "is not permanent;" rather, like organic choices, it does decompose.
- Playground rubber mulch "is not non-toxic; it contains a number of metal and organic contaminants with known environmental and/or human health effects."
Another article on playground rubber mulch seems to throw into question all of the environmental studies that have been done on playground rubber mulch -- whether conducted by its attackers or by those in the industry. Again, I am not a chemist. I am not here to scare you, but to alert you to questions about the safety of this product before you purchase it. In the end, we all have to go with our gut feelings in such matters. But even the "gut" needs some input to base its decisions on, doesn't it?
