I wasted more time than you know pursuing that city park proposal which was less a proposal and more a fait accompli. I had prepared a brief statement which I did not present and would have been inappropriate if I had — this city council meeting was more about where they should implement their expanded park proposal, not how. One of the things I wish the many, many people who spoke at that meeting had learned was to be brief and on point, and I wasn’t going to bring up an issue that was not under consideration.
I had my own petty concerns.
I’m going to speak for the bugs, as unpopular as they usually are.
If you get down on your hands and knees with a handlens in the park and look carefully in the grass, you’ll find a flourishing population of springtails and ants and isopods and beetles, all tending to the soil and bothering no humans at all. The soil is alive, and the biological elements are working to maintain it to our benefit — new grass is always pushing up and the detritovores are actively cleaning up any dead material. The natural surface is a familiar and safe substrate for children, too, with dirt and grass providing a comfortable cushion for play.
Landscape Structures Inc. intends to replace that living surface with dead asphalt and dead poured-in-place synthetic rubber sheets. I had to look up this stuff: it’s called EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer), made from processed recycled plastics and rubber. It’s mostly safe — you can read the material safety data sheet . There is a very small cancer hazard which can be regarded as negligible, since the polymer is so stable that the dangerous compounds are unlikely to be released. It is however toxic to aquatic organisms, since water runoff can carry the material into the groundwater. So maybe not as stable as we’d like to imagine?
I don’t think toxicity is a serious concern. I’m more concerned that we’d be replacing a living surface with dead , sterile plastic that will gradually decay, and need regular maintenance and eventual replacement. In the world we’d be making with this playground, falling leaves and twigs are a damaging contaminant rather than an aspect of a healthy environment.
Do we need to pave over more of the park? Don’t we have enough plastic in our environment?
As it turns out, that was all totally irrelevant anyway, since the city had already signed contracts with Landscape Structures, Inc.
The theme of this park is supposed to be a celebration of agriculture. Perhaps our farmers will start raising a rich crop of ethylene propylene diene monomer? It’s the future, you know.
I have one word for you …
The plastic can either be recycled and used as a playground surface or end up in a landfill. Take your pick.
No doubt the playground surface will also eventually end up in a landfill but that’s not important now.
I’m glad I’m down with EPMD instead. They’re “Strictly Business”.
:”They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” Joni Mitchell, 1970
“Le plus ca change, le plus c’est le meme chose” French proverb.
When we moved into our current home, part of the backyard was sodded…in other words, grass enmeshed in a plastic matrix so it could be easily rolled up and rolled out. It’s taken us a while but most of that is gone or buried. Lots of leaves and kitchen compost have gone into that area to transform it.
This is apropos of your meeting with your town council. I get emails from Marin county and this is the contents of one from the county’s Board of Supervisors:
@ 2. Walter Solomon
Or burned?
Or best yet not produced in the first place?
The plastic can either be recycled
and used as a playground surfaceor buried, chemically destroyed (?) or firerd into the Sun or more likely Jupiter or something else? More imagination needed? Admittedly some options more likely than others..Or burned? Or, well, see my previous sentence.
Time for a sit in on the construction site?
This type of playground design is not just a hat tip towards accessibility, it is essentially the current ADA requirement for public playgrounds for accessibility, safety, and inclusiveness. The city is meeting not just the letter, but the spirit of the law here. It is unfortunate that there are very few materials that meet the surface rolling traversal and impact requirements, with the rubber/plastic type being the most cost effective option. There are more sustainable wood fiber based materials, but they require more frequent maintenance and replacement; if even more sustainability-minded people like PZ are complaining about the cost of this project, no city council is going to entertain the more sustainable option that requires replacing an expensive surface 2-3 times as often. The recycling of materials is a good start, but hopefully better materials come along in the future.
There is also a very good justification for the rubber surface being extended over such a large area. Playgrounds are not just about children having fun: social interaction are a very important part of a child’s mental well-being and development. Relegating mobility-impaired children to a smaller area of the playground than able-bodied children is not at all inclusive. I imagine Morris has a huge amount of grassy areas, hiking trails, and other outdoor spaces where able-bodied people can go to enjoy natural surfaces. There are certainly other partially-accessible places where disabled children have areas made accessible to them, but with many areas only able-bodied children may go. This may be the only outdoor play area in Morris where mobility-impaired children will feel welcome to be in all the other places children are. Even if they can not fully partake in activities other children are doing, they can still be present and interact socially. Personally, I think fostering interactions between disabled and able-bodied is nearly as beneficial for the able-bodied children, because I find children exposed to all different types of people tend to grow up to be more well-rounded, inclusive people.
I have to say I am a bit disappointed in these two threads. There could be a good discourse on where to draw the line between equity and sustainability, as there is some conflict here and there are good arguments on both sides. Instead, the equity argument was dismissed as invalid and everyone jumped on the “evil gubment” bandwagon. The pharyngula readership is generally not on the side of the aisle I am accustomed to seeing that from.
Ok, getting off my high horse and going back to lurking for another five years. :)
robro@6:
Windbag (n). Someone who could have said “We will resist Trump”, but why express that in just four words when you can use four hundred?
I should add that the ADA access requirements are not just for mobility-impaired children, but for mobility-impaired parents and guardians of able-bodied children as well.
Just wanted to add my voice to Chi’s. I have some small experience with this sort of material in playgrounds and with local govt, and while the criticisms in the pile on can be and often are valid, there are good reasons for using a plastic/rubber surface too. Here in Australia, specifically the Yarra Ranges Shire, I asked why this and not grass too when I was installing it. I was told it was an Occupational Health and Safety thing. ie Little Kiddies falling on it had better cushioning so that any injuries were either prevented or lessened. Think skinned elbow vs broken arm. And what Chi was saying makes a lot of sense to me as well. Oh, and it was made of old tyres. @StevoR aka the literal running Simpsons gag of a waste problem to deal with.
Now, I want to concede I am not an expert and I don’t know what material is being used in the Morris case either. But I too would like to register my objection to the pile on. It is I think unwarranted. This time.
Has the hygiene factor been considered? Young children have been known to piss in playgrounds. Grass, soil and bark chips can absorb that. Can EPDM cope?
I hope that dogs will be excluded. They’re worse than infants.
@13– The problem with urine is mostly social rather than infectious. With leptospirosis, which is spread by urine, the vector is non-human animals. Leptospirosis contamination can persist in soil for months. I have no idea how long lepto can last on EPDM surfaces, but if I had to guess I would expect it to be a less friendly environment than soil.
Thankyou, Chi, and particularly for your important observation #11. We should be listening, not piling-on.
There is an environmental angle to consider for these few hundred square metres of the nearest square miles of urban Morris. But its social and community purpose must not be forgotten. Good consultation is so important, and seems to be a casualty here.
.
[My sarcastic side-note:] Society carried out a series of very large-scale observational experiments from 2020 onwards (without ethics board approval or foreknowledge) about depriving kids of opportunities for self-driven socialisation, but forgot to review any of the results except the ones about handwashing hygiene. /s.
Top-quality lurking, thank you Chi: 10/10 would read again.
In 1966, a famous Dutch writer of children books wrote a story about Kroezebetje, a little lamb with synthetic fibers instead of wool.
@ ^ rietpluim : 1966!?
Prescient. Whoah.
Kroezebetje by Marjan Van Laere – 20 mins long. Anglais translation sure would be nice. Presume that’s it..
Goodyear was working on this stuff back in the 70s.