Now, can a vertical garden made with unusual tires do that same function? The answer is yes. How is that possible? The answer is in technology.
Just the one that has incorporated the vertical garden installed by Ilunion in the surroundings of its corporate headquarters located next to the M-30, in Madrid. An installation that, in addition to beautifying the place, eliminates polluting substances. This is Green Gardens, a solution created and patented by mure you-a company specialized in the design and development of sustainable urban solutions and a large scale-whose purifying action of the air resembles the photosynthesis of a forest and is based on the Union of Circular Economics and Fotocatotic Nanotechnology.
The garden, which has an area of 47 square meters and for which more than three tons of tires out of use managed by Signus have been used, is capable of absorbing contaminants such as nitrogen dioxide, main responsible for poor air quality in cities and the one that affects people more negative and directly to people’s health. The purifying action of this concrete installation is equivalent to the photosynthesis of a forest of 47 adult trees, according to Diego Delgado, CEO of Global Murerte, in the presentation of the Garden of Ilunion, the first private company in Europe to incorporate this technology is its commitment to the positive environmental and social impact.
Green Gardens inside and out
The main raw material of Green Gardens are out of use tires. Each square meter of these vertical gardens reuse 10 tires. For example and in general, for an area of 1,000 m2 70 tons of tires out of use would be recycled. With what can be seen at first glance that is an option to take into account as an interesting application of this residue.
With the added advantage that practically as it is used, since only the rolling is used, the part that is in contact with the ground. Bea González, Executive Director of Murarte, explains the process: «Once the other components of the tire, textiles and metallic, we stay exclusively with the rubber, which is a hundred percent rubber. You don’t have to crush them, nor grace them. That rubber is washed to eliminate all the waste that can carry of fat, asphalt, etc., stretches and with water jet machines, which act as a laser cut, we draw the desired shape to those pieces of rubber, which are the ones that will form the final composition ».
As in this project it was to give it the appearance of a dense forest, “the rubber has been cut giving it shape of willow, holm oak, Madroño, etc., -González continues,” which then get into paint ovens and are given the chromatic line that our interior designers decide for each specific garden. “
The very important design phase, «is when it is decided what aspect is going to have. In this case, being an installation that is going to be in Madrid, it has been chosen for leaves of native tree species ». Once the leaves cut and painted in the appropriate colors, “the structure is mounted on a composite steel panel, which is screwed to the surface where the vertical garden will be installed and created. “I like to say that we do it in an anarchic way: a leaf there, a sheet here … as is nature.”
It is when that structure is mounted in the space to which it is intended when the time comes to incorporate the component provided by the property of eliminating air pollutants. The Quid of the matter, in short. «A nano network is sprayed on the surface of the leaves, a liquid and transparent solution one of whose components is a photocatizing chemical element that is activated when coming into contact with light, humidity and wind, the three factors that activate the automatic chemical process of photocatalysis. In this way, NOx particles that come into contact with the garden surface become water vapor and salt that fall in a harmless way to the surface ». In the case of the installation of Ilunion, “the Iberian Association of photocatalysis and endorsed by an associated Spanish laboratory, has given us a Nox mitigation percentage of 22%,” says Bea González.
It is a constant process, which acts while the components of the liquid solution «that has 100% yield for five years are active. After this time it is not deactivated, it only loses efficiency, so it is recommended to give it a new application ».
As for the painting, it lasts up to 15 years and “it can be painted again without dismantling it, with spray. Meanwhile, maintenance is very simple because it is a cleansable car, since the molecule is simply activated with the rain. If it did not rain, simply with a hydrolympiadora ».
Advantages, possible locations and more
A living garden is a type of solution, it offers results and an aesthetic. And it has costs. González, argues the differences «4,000 m2 of Garden Living on Avenida de la Enustración de Madrid, with natural plants, have meant an initial investment of 4 million euros. More then its maintenance ». For the directive of Murerte, the points in favor of their vertical gardens are clear: «The living require tremendous maintenance and have a very important water footprint. On the other hand, with tires based maintenance is practically zero. Some have results and a cost. And others, give solution to other problems and compared the cost is 50% lower ».
The diversity of possible places where it can be installed is remarkable, because “it is designed for urban environments where it can have a positive visual impact such as welcome to a population and in facades, roundabouts, entries to bridges, tunnels or parking lots. There, precisely, it is very interesting because nox is concentrated from all cars that enter and leave. So that a space is beautified at the same time that that contaminant is being mitigated ».
Murarte, who already had long experience in the development of similar solutions in Latin America, to apply them in Spain sought local allies. One of them Signus, with whom we begin to inquire about the volume of outward tires waste that is being generated in Europe. We saw that tons were incredible and, also, the new European regulations that will prohibit using tire microgranulate in artificial sport fields. So this use is ideal for the amount of tire that requires and because it applies to something beautiful and very socially useful ».
In this sense, González adds that “it is also an alternative for private, large or medium, quoted companies, etc. that they want to have positive impact on their immediate environment ».