Plastic playground equipment is environmentally friendly

In our childhood, we have fun with the carousel, monkey bars and slides. What you probably are not worry about is the safety hazards that accompanied those outdoor playground equipment. The carousel could break an arm or leg if a child tried to get on or off while it was moving. However, there was no risk associated with the traditional playground equipment. Today however, safety problem is the most concerned problem for parents. 

Thirty years ago, the most common outdoor playground equipment materials were metal and wood. Metal is easy to heat up in the sun, and even steel can reach temperatures in the summer that can cause burns. Remember how you couldn't slide on the slides at two in the afternoon because they were too hot to sit on? Well that was because the metal would absorb a large portion of the heat from sunlight. Plastic playground equipment reflects a much larger spectrum of light than it absorbs, making it cooler during the hot hours of the day. 

The playground equipment of today has evolved to meet the standards of safety that we have. It's also become more environmentally friendly. For instance, the most common ground covering on a playground today is rubber. Now you may not think of rubber as an environmentally friendly material, but the rubber for playgrounds is most often made of recycled tires. So that we can give new life to that rubber and provide a safer covering for the playground at the same time.

In modern times, we mostly take up plastic playground equipment. This is because plastics can be molded in such a way that all fastenings are internal, preventing the equipment from presenting a snagging or cutting hazard to kids. Plastic also is less thermally conductive than metal. Another advantage of using plastic is a less chance of getting a friction burn. Plastic is much less likely to give a friction burn than even the smoothest metal. This is because skin is less likely to stick to plastic than metal. Nowadays, outdoor playground equipment puts safety as goal number one, and as a parent, isn't that what you want?