Rubber sports- and playground floors
KSP Kunstgras collaborates with Granuband on circular playgrounds
KSP Kunstgras has been collaborating with Granuband for several years now. Owner Joost Sweep: “We supply the rubber from old playground floors to Granuband, which then makes new rubber tiles from it. The height of circularity.”
Run-down playgrounds get a second life
On behalf of several Dutch municipalities, KSP Kunstgras renovates run-down playgrounds that are in urgent need of a facelift. This collected waste is sent to Granuband, where the material is shredded. KSP Kunstgras then buys the resulting granulate and rubber tiles from Granuband and makes new playground floors from them.
High-value rubber recycling
It is impossible to say with one 100 per cent certainty whether a new floor for a sports facility or playground can be made completely from an old floor. “That’s where we ultimately want to go,” insists Sweep, “but at the moment Granuband can only see what can be done with the material when they literally have it in their hands.”
Edwin Kuiper, sales and marketing manager at Granuband, explains that they strive for the least-possible degradation of the product. “In an ideal world we’d be able to turn an old tyre into a new one and an old playground floor into a new one, but that’s not always possible. But what we do do, is exploit the actual quality of the secondary raw material as best we can. In other words, after analysing the material, we use it to make other rubber products whose requirements correspond with the level of quality that the material still has. This could be for underlay floors, for example, for which the requirements are typically less stringent.”
Circularity comes first at Granuband and KSP Kunstgras
Circularity is the responsibility of the producer and the client
Circularity is a key factor for KSP Kunstgras. “Everything we make has been thoroughly thought-through and it must all be circular,” says Sweep. “The way we see it, you cannot get away with anything less. The fact that we’ve already travelled so far along this road really appeals to our clients – mostly municipalities. By the way, both as a company and as a client, I think that you shoulder a degree of responsibility for this. When placing an order, for example, too much emphasis is still placed on the lowest price and not enough on circularity.”
Unique collaboration
In Granuband, KSP Kunstgras has found a very stable partner, concludes Sweep. “We started with a pilot project, then agreed that we wanted to continue our collaboration, one in which we have been able to improve one another. We now have a much better idea as to how clean the material must be and what it can be used for. Essentially, it translates to them taking the old material from us and us getting new secondary raw material in return. Something I really appreciate is that at Granuband agreements are always kept to. And what else would I like? Well, I’d love to give our clients more insight into our unique collaboration, so they could see for themselves exactly what Granuband does.”