An Israeli company by the name of ‘Simply Green’ [in Hebrew ‘Pashut Yarok’] recently received authorization, and began to export foam safety surfaces for children’s playgrounds to countries throughout the European Union.
Simply Green, is an frontrunner in creating safety surfaces for children’s playgrounds and open park spaces, complete with plastic foam shockpads that are placed under synthetic grass surfaces. These shockpads and synthetic grass provide a higher level of safety, are more durable and more environmentally friendly than previously used rubberized flooring sections, that have been utilized over the past two decades.
The purpose of the shockpads is to ensure a higher standard of safety for playgrounds. In the eventuality of a child falling from a playground apparatus, the spongy layer will absorb the shock, potentially saving the child’s life.
Guy Saar, CEO of Simply Green spoke to Arutz Sheva about his product and about his entry into the European market. “What is special about our products, is that they are completely recycled from the plastic wrappings that secure electrical appliances when first purchased. Until now these wrappings had no recyclable use. We found a way to use them to ensure the safety of children. What could be better?”
Saar noted that the road to entering the European market was not a simple one. “We abide by the Israeli standards for shockpads, as well as for playground equipment for children. There are different standards for different heights of apparatus.Once we succeeded in qualifying for all of them, we checked with the English standards board, which is the most widely accepted standardization, and we were accepted there as well, just a few weeks ago.”
The company wasted no time in crashing the market. “We’ve begun selling to England and we are in contractual talks with Spain and Germany.” So far the company has sold tens of thousands of square meters of the shockpads and synthetic grass turf to England.
“We have not met with any resistance on the part of European BDS movements. Even though England is one of the countries that suffers from the issue, we haven’t had any issue.”
“The Greenplay package,” which is the name given to the shockpad and synthetic grass combination, “is very new. The product is still in its infancy in the market and we are hoping that it’s popularity continues to grow.”
“We are happy to be an Israeli company and there isn’t another company that we know of that has succeeded in the field of recycling this type of material and turning it into playground equipment for children to use the world over,” said Saar.
“The export of the ‘Shockpad’ holds great economic potential,” he added. “The EU countries invest a huge amount of resources to protect children in playgrounds. The combination of safety with recycling and protecting the environment is very important to European decision makers.”
