Natural rubber brooms

For the past 15 years, here at Show TV we have prided ourselves on the ability to bring the latest trending and coolest products from all over the world to our shores in New Zealand so we can share them with fellow Kiwis.

But what constitutes a ‘cool’ product?

All of the products that we bring into our little Show TV family have a story to tell. Whether it's a market leading beauty product, life changing bedding or revolutionary cookware, our products come from backgrounds that are encompassed with interesting stories and of course, our newest product is no exception.

On the surface, our Sweepa rubber brooms may look no more interesting than a cleaning product, but the story of how these rubber brooms are made is something else entirely.

How are rubber brooms made?

Here at Show TV, doing all that we can to help the environment is extremely important to us. Whether it's using recycling bins in the office, reusing packaging and boxes from our shipments or reselling products so they don’t go to waste, we try our best to implement environmentally conscious practises in and around the workplace.

So how does the Sweepa broom support environmentally friendly practises?

Made from natural rubber, the materials to make the Sweepa rubber brush come from the Rubber tree (Hevea Brasiliensis). Rubber trees naturally consume Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and produce elastomer (Latex). Humans have learnt to harvest natural latex by harmlessly ‘tapping’ rubber trees to remove a milky sap from the bark, without cutting down or damaging the tree in the process, a system that has major benefits both environmentally and economically.

When it comes to environmental benefits, the process of harvesting latex from rubber trees plays a pivotal role in reforestation. After 30 years the latex yield efficiency of a Rubber tapped tree drops; it then gets chopped down and the wood is used either as a biofuel, furniture wood or light manufacturing wood. However, every time a tree is chopped, 10 new trees take its place, and this constant circle plays an integral part in creating oxygen and recycling CO2 into reusable energy. A single Rubber tree can add 1 metric ton of CO2 in its 30 year cycle, which means that just one hectare can add an incredible 300 tons of carbon credits in this time. Sri Lanka, where most rubber tree plantations are found, can therefore contribute 42 million MT by 2021.

As well as reforestation, rubber tree plantations also have major agronomic benefits. Rubber plantations are generally grown where other crops can't grow (against radiants of hills) which makes them an integral part of soil conservation. Agronomic efficiency is improved as the soil directly benefits from the abundant fall of leaves from the Rubber trees, which makes the multi-crop growing of coffee, Cocoa and Vanilla possible.

When it comes to economic benefits, as the world renowned country for producing the best latex available, 60% of the Latex produced from Sri Lanka is farmed and cultivated by small crop farmers and plantation workers, which in turn supplies them with a much needed sustainable income and long term projects. The Sri Lanka Rubber Institute is the oldest in the world and plays a direct role in helping crop farmers manage, control, and reforest their Rubber plantations to full potential.

Knowing and understanding where our products come from is so important as it can not only help us appreciate the backstory of some of the product we have here at Show TV, but it can also give us a deeper understanding as to how our products might be contributing to the environment, whilst economically benefiting the country that they came from.

Now turned into a multi-use rubber brush that can help us sweep, scrub, wash and squeegee around the house, how cool is it to know that our Sweepa rubber brooms have such a versatile and rich history, contributing to the environmental and economic practices in Sri Lanka.