LOCAL MATERIALS FORA CHILDREN’S PAYGROUND.

Most of the local materials available are recycled. These include plastic bottles, scrape metals, old car tires, plastic/metallic shipping oil-barrels and wood(pallets, old soda and tomato crates).After taking a field research in some slums, we were able to establish the availability of these materials as follows.

Old car tires are available in a number of places in the slums, the dealers mainly source them from garages around.

1. OLD CAR TIRES.

They are mainly used to make Maasai sandals also known as "akala" though they can be sold to anyone who expresses interest in buying them.

The tires can be used in such ways as landscaping of gardens and surface treatment.

Different ways in which car tires can be used to make children's play spaces.

These are the 210L drums normally used in shipping of oil and other chemicals, mostly are blue in colour.They are available in the areas around Kariokor and Pumwani.

2. PLASTIC/METALLIC OIL-

BARRELS.

These drums can be used to design interesting playing spaces for children like these ones.

Scrape metals are highly available within the slums, most of these are tins, copper wires, aluminium plates and cables, RHS/ CHS steel sections and iron sheets.

3. SCRAPE METALS.

Recycled Circular Hollow Sections and Rectangular Hollow Sections will be useful in the construction of swings and other structural equipments,

welding together of small pieces may be required though.

4. PLASTIC BOTTLES.

Just as scrape metals, plastic bottles are readily available within and around the slum areas. They are mostly found together, as the scrape metal dealers also deal in plastics.

This is what an artist in Uganda was able to achieve with plastic bottle tops.

5. RECYCLEABLE

WOOD.

There are a number of sources of wood that can be recycled and used in the design of a play space. These include waste wood, old soda crates, pallets and tomato crates.

Pallets.

Tomato/fruit crates.

These are good examples of what recycled wood can be transformed into.

From the research, it is reasonable to conclude that all local materials that may be desired in the design of the children’s play ground will be available though in different quantities. Their prices may also differ from one to the other and from place to place.