Continuing Education Course for Rubber Recycling

Upon completion of the course, learners should be able to:

• Understand TBL and ESG principles and how environmental, social, and governance considerations can influence architectural, engineering, and material-selection decisions.
• Evaluate recycling and manufacturing processes by exploring sustainability, vertical integration, and the environmental benefits associated with recovering and repurposing materials.
• Explore purposeful recycling in action through examples of rubber and other materials being diverted from landfills and transformed into applications that support community health, safety, welfare, and accessibility.
• Connect recycled materials with sustainable design goals by examining how ESG-driven processes, high-quality products, and recreational applications can contribute to strategies associated with LEED v5, WELL v2, and SITES v2.

This course was developed for professionals involved in designing, specifying, building, and improving the built environment, including:

Architects
Explore how recycled materials and manufacturing processes can support sustainability-focused design decisions.

Landscape Architects
Learn how recycled materials are transformed into surfacing for playgrounds, campuses, recreation spaces, and other outdoor environments.

Engineers
Gain insight into material processing, manufacturing, applications, and sustainability considerations.

Interior Designers & Designers
Build a broader understanding of material lifecycles, responsible material selection, and circular design principles.

Contractors & Construction Professionals
Learn what happens upstream of installation and how recovered materials become finished recreational surfacing systems.

Understanding where materials come from, how they are processed, what they become, and where they can be used provides a more complete picture of their role within sustainable design.

Purposeful recycling can help keep valuable materials in use, reduce reliance on virgin resources, divert material from landfills, and create products that serve communities in new ways.

For design and construction professionals, that knowledge can provide another tool for evaluating materials—not simply by what a finished product looks like, but by considering its broader lifecycle and impact.

The course examines how recycling and manufacturing can be viewed through the triple bottom line, considering three interconnected areas:

Environmental

Recovering and repurposing materials can reduce waste, conserve resources, and extend the useful life of existing materials.

Social

Recycled materials can be transformed into products used in recreational spaces that support play, activity, accessibility, and community engagement.

Economic

Creating valuable new applications for recovered materials can support more sustainable manufacturing and long-term business practices.

Together, these considerations demonstrate how recycling can become part of a larger approach to responsible material use and sustainable development.

This course follows the material through its lifecycle—from recovery and processing to manufacturing and installation—to provide a closer look at how materials that may otherwise become waste can be transformed into valuable resources.

Participants will explore:

• Rubber collection and recovery
• Material processing
• Recycling and manufacturing
• Vertical integration
• Recreational surfacing applications
• Landfill diversion and resource conservation
• Accessibility and community applications
• Sustainable design considerations

By understanding the entire process, design and construction professionals can make more informed decisions about the materials they specify and the broader environmental and community impacts those decisions can have.