Stepping stones made from recycled rubber

Ergates

Saw some of these in the garden centre this morning. I thought they would be ideal to put across a flower bed, and being lightweight, much easier to manhandle than the concrete versions.
Has anybody used these, any comments?

Lyn

This sort of thing?    I haven’t seen then, they’d be too expensive for me but they look ok. They come in all different shapes for a random effect or circles. 

Ergates

That’s the sort of thing, although the ones I saw were even more expensive! I was wondering how well they would wear. Hopefully have the advantage of not getting so slippy with algae etc?
Also a big bonus that they were very light. Most places in our garden are a bit of a distance from the drive, transferring things like flagstones etc is getting increasingly impractical as we have got older, too many bits of us groaning and moaning.

Magicmarigold

I have some like those stomp stones. I got mine from home bargains, 10 for £20. They said they are made from recycled rubber but they feel like plastic to me...they are very light though and you literally just put them on top of the turf and jump on them a bit to sink in. You can mow over them aswell. 
Like I said mine were probably a cheaper version of what you've seen and they are quite small but they make a good path to the trampoline and compost bin at the back of the garden.

Pauline 7

If they are 'very light' do they blow around in a strong wind? 

Lizzie27

@Ergates,  perhaps you need a sack truck?

Ergates

We have got a sack truck. Also got a lot of 1 in 4 slopes. Managed to get the old fridge and dishwasher out of the kitchen and down to the front drive for disposal, and it’s great for trundling bags of compost or heavy pots round the garden. It’s also things like getting slabs out of the car boot that we’re trying to avoid. Any little helps, but so much of the garden is so steep.

Fairygirl

I can't see those being any better in shady conditions than paving, re getting mossy or covered in algae and being slippery. 

Ergates

Fairygirl said:

I can't see those being any better in shady conditions than paving, re getting mossy or covered in algae and being slippery. 

I was hoping that might have been a plus point in their favour. A lot of our sloping concrete paths can get very treacherous. My plan was to put some stepping stones through a new flower bed, to encourage me to keep up on things like weeding and deadheading. Otherwise, I’m thinking bark as a mulch, which should at least reduce the amount of mud I get on my boots.

Lyn

Rubber wellies can be very slippery in the wet weather. They are quite expensive compared to reconstituted stone
The problem with the recycling of certain items is that the energy wasted simply turning the product into something else is quite often more than was used for the original item.
Not that that’s the discussion here,  looks to be a good idea in theory.

Fairygirl

I expect if the surface was rough enough they might be ok, but I'm not sure. 

I know what you mean @Lyn, but I suppose companies have to try something, and there's no easy solution just now. There was an item a while ago that I read, about a chap who was making garden furniture from recycled plastic, and, to my surprise, it looked pretty decent. 
I have more of a problem with Amazon, to be honest