Incorporating sustainable products into our lives is something that’s very important to our family.
Disclaimer – This post was written in partnership with OTS (Ontario Tire Stewardship). All thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.
As a farming family, we choose to use as many eco-friendly products on our farm as possible. We take the idea of the 3 Rs seriously. We try to use sustainable products on our farm as much as we can. We have instilled the idea of reduce, re-use, and recycle to our daughter, and hope she continues to practice what she has been taught.
Hubby (aka Farmer John) is always doing research on how to improve animal welfare, environmental footprint, and cost effectiveness on the farm.
We have discovered that utilizing products made from recycled tires is a cost-effective and functional alternative to using new product. It may have started off as a simple tire. but once recycled, old tires come back in so many different shapes, sizes and forms. The possibilities are almost endless – products can be used around your home, garden, driveway, or even in your local arena or community centre. On the farm, rubber mats made from recycled tires can prove to be quite effective in reducing slippage compared to concrete flooring.
We recently received two types of rubber mats to use on our farm. Why use rubber products on the farm?
Besides doing your part to think and buy more sustainably, recycled tire products are:
- Shock-absorbing
- Fire resistant
- Long-lasting
- Noise reducing
- Durable and low maintenance
- Slip resistant
- Cost effective
We have a doorway where cattle frequently slip when going through. We are hoping that the mats will greatly reduce slipping from happening.
Utility mats for use on the farm can be used when caring for cattle. Many may not realize that when caring for cattle, there are many things to consider. We need to ensure that the conditions are safe, hygienic, and comfortable for our cattle. It is extremely important to make sure that the floors are comfortable to walk on, free of risk of slipping, and easy to clean.
I’m not going to lie. Sometimes the cattle can make a lot of mess in the barn, and can slip and can injure themselves if they fall. I’ve seen it happen a few times when cattle get excited, start running, and then lose their footing because the cement floor may have been slippery. This is when the rubber utility mats come in handy.
These are the two different types of mats we have in our two barns:
- Animat rubber surface mats – these mats are designed with cow comfort in mind. Animat rubber flooring is ideally designed for holding areas, parlors, stalls and alleys and offers the following benefits:
- Increased Comfort: It provides optimal comfort for your herd because it comes closest to replicating the natural conditions found in pastures. Unlike concrete, it helps to absorb shocks to feet and legs.
- Increased Safety: The matting also offers a non-slip surface, even when wet, to reduce the likelihood of slipping and decrease the stress of moving about.
- Improved Hygiene: Animat’s cow mats are non-porous and made of 100% recycled rubber. They are stable and easy to clean and disinfect for a healthy environment.
- NorthWest Rubber cattle mats – these mats offer the stability and comfort that cows need, along with ideal durability for many surface needs around the barn.
It excites me to discover new and different ways of incorporating sustainable products into our lives, be it in the home, our outdoor living space, or on the farm/in the barn! Since learning more about products made from recycled tires, I am more and more in awe of all the possibilities and all the different products that we can use around our home and farm. We’ve got everything from rubber planters, boot trays, door mats, to cattle mats!
A little background on OTS
Ontario Tire Stewardship is an organization championing waste diversion that works with a network of stewards, collectors, haulers, processors and recycled product manufacturers to collect and recycle used tires. OTS’s Used Tires Program has successfully diverted more than 118 million tires from landfills since 2009. Instead, Ontario tires get efficiently and responsibly recycled into new products, leading to hundreds of new jobs in Ontario, more livable communities and a growing green economy in the province.
We have made some changes around our home and have incorporated products made from recycled tires. There are many small changes that can be made around the home to be more sustainable and eco-friendly, and the same goes for the farm. Living on a farm, we feel it is so important to be as environmentally responsible as possible, and are always looking for, researching, and implementing innovative ways to be environmentally responsible.
These are just a few different ways to incorporate these sorts of products into our home and lives.
To learn more about Ontario Tire Stewardship, visit rethinktires.ca or find them on Facebook and Twitter.
We don’t currently use any recycled rubber tire products in our home, but I would like to,. Thanks for telling us about the mats and thanks for using them to help our environment (and the environment for your animals)
This is so interesting! (I love reading about farm life!)
My husband and I mountain bike, and I love reusing bike parts for crafty projects. I am planning on making bike tire belts out of a pair of tires that I own when they wear out completely.
I just love how much you think about the environment and your animals . I also have 4 mats made with tires in my home 🙂
Wow.. that is really cool. Did not know these products existed..great to.learn about the recycled tires program.