Bark Briquettes for Schools
Bark briquettes for schools are a little different than the wood pellets that schools sometimes use under the playground equipment. The bark briquettes use bark from the trees instead of the entire tree and saw dust as the wood pellets do.
Bark briquettes for schools provide a soft landing for children who are jumping around on the playground or running around, chasing one another.
The bark briquettes are actually bricks that need to be placed one beside another like regular bricks but they are much softer and provide more safety for children.
The wood chips (Briketts) that are customary in many school playgrounds, are dirty and do not provide adequate cushioning for falls and jumping. These bark briquettes actually ‘give way’ when a child jumps up and down on them. In addition, wood chips can be dirty and get everything they touch dirty, including hands and clothing. The bark briquettes are clean and remain so, except for the occasional dusting, which the rain will take care of.
The wood chips can and often are carried into the school building and make a mess where the playground meets the blacktop, whereas the bark briquettes will not be moving from where they are placed. And the smaller children will not be able to pick them up and put the pieces in their mouths like with the wood chips, which can cause a choking hazard not many people think about when they use the wood chips.
The bark is compressed and over time, a long period of time, the bark briquettes can be replaced and the old ones could be used as ‘firewood’ because they burn cleaner and clearer than the traditional trees or logs.
The bark briquettes are eco-friendly in that they only omit as much CO2 as they did when they were a living organism. And once they need to be replaced, again, after a long period of time, they can be burned in a wood burning stove or bonfire and will burn clean with little ash, which can then be turned into fertilizer.
Having the bark briquettes for schools would benefit not only the children, but the teachers could plan environmental lesson plans around the bark briquettes and how they are made from the environment to help the atmosphere. There are many sites on the Internet that have photos of the compression machines and these, too, can be incorporated into the lesson plans.
If you are interested in using the bark briquettes around your own child’s swing set, they are available in various package sizes and can easily be installed if enough ground is removed.
You can also make a case for the bark briquettes at your child’s school by first gathering all the information regarding the bark briquettes, the safety issues – such as no child will be swallowing them like the regular wood chips – and the economical factors as well. Then, at the next school board meeting, present your findings and persuade them to consider replacing the wood chips with the bark briquettes.
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