It can be found on playgrounds and in gardens in nearly any hue imaginable — but is rubber mulch actually good for your plants? One person on Facebook asked their gardening group for advice.
In a text-only post, one gardener asked: “Has anyone used rubber mulch around perennials? The packaging says safe for around plants, but curious if anyone that has used it has had any problems.”
Rubber mulch is an approximation of garden mulch usually made from recycled tires. Lawn Starter wrote about some of the uses and drawbacks of the material. They explained it “is long-lasting and can be a safer surface for your child’s backyard playground, but … tire mulch is flammable and may be toxic.”
Tires have been notoriously hard to recycle; they are large, heavy, and are almost never accepted in curbside pickup. It is possible to drop them off at certain landfills and transfer stations, but having the ability to find the proper location and often paying for the privilege leads to illegal dumping. Tires can be regularly found on the sides of roads and even abandoned in local parks.
Recycling this material into usable mulch can help keep it from landfills temporarily, but it has some major drawbacks. For one, as it breaks down, it contributes to our microplastics crisis, leaching chemicals into the soil and spreading tiny particles into our waterways.
Beyond the larger societal issues, rubber mulch does not provide beneficial nutrients to your soil like its natural counterpart. Plus, it can lead to fires and be nearly impossible to remove every single piece from your yard once it has been installed.
Folks on Facebook seemed wary of rubber mulch and shared some thoughts on its use.
One person wrote: “It should be illegal. Why not put down something that will add nutrients and moisture to your soil? Wood chips and mulch will decompose to make nice compost.”
Someone else, likely referring to the package label mentioned by the OP, said: “I can’t believe that they even allow that. Horrible for the environment.”
Someone else simply responded, “It gets really hot don’t use it!”
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