By Stuart Robinson of Gardening Tips n Ideas (in Australia – thus the British spelling). 
Every year more than 700 million new tyres are created replacing a similar amount that ends up getting burnt or discarded in waste sites. In fact, in Australia alone more than 70% are still being tossed away annually.
Fortunately gardeners aren’t wasteful people and we’ve used them to stack potatoes, add a swing for the kids and even turned them inside out and planted flowers in them. But there are only so many potato tires, swings and planters that one garden needs.
So the new trend is to apply rubber mulch on your garden beds and why not? It comes in a range of colours, doesn’t break down (not in your lifetime anyway) so you shouldn’t need to replace it and it’s easy to apply. Plus there are no smells that keep your neighbours indoors.
With so many benefits it seems hard to bypass an obvious solution to the rubber recycling problem.
That is until you find out whether it has any detrimental side effects to your garden. And, alas, it does. Recycled rubber mulch contains enough zinc, cadmium and other heavy metals to destroy your favourite ornamentals in one foul swoop.
