A Matta of comfort and safety

BY ANNE BOSWELL

Long hours of standing on hard, cold concrete can cause body strains and injuries to the most robust farmers –and their cows.

Now, the company behind New Zealand’s safest, softest and most sustainable playground matting has introduced a product that will signi cantly reduce the impact on farmers’ bodies while they work.

Work Matta Excel and Work Matta Comfort are two signi cant product o erings to the New Zealand agricultural market from Matta Products, the Kiwi company that has been designing and manufacturing sustainable and durable work and play surfacing for over 30 years.

Established by Murray Scott in 1992, the business started with the sole focus of producing mats for a multitude of markets. But since then, it has evolved into the go-to for high quality surfacing for a variety of environments under Work (agriculture, industrial and automotive spaces) and Play (playgrounds, tness centres, aquatic centres, kindergartens).

Matta is already well established in the New Zealand, British, North American and Australian markets, with the North American market already actively seeking Matta’s products for its agricultural industry. Current Matta Products owners Brent Harris and Dylan Matthews were certain their brand of high performing matting was perfect for New Zealand’s agricultural industry.

There are two products available in the Agricultural Work Matta range: Work Matta Excel and Work Matta Comfort. Both products are designed for workers who stand on hard oors for extended periods of time, with the goal of reducing fatigue, relieving pressure on joints and reducing leg and back strain. Both products are an ergonomic, mid-compression ooring solutions ideal for agricultural environments.

Work Matta Excel is an open-surface tile design that features outstanding air ow and drainage capability for the hosing down and dispersal of debrisladen water, such as that found in a dairy shed.

Work Matta Comfort is a closed surface tile with a diamond shield texture providing more grip to farmers where they do not want material owing beneath the matting surface.

There are plenty of agricultural matting products on the market, but Dylan says Matta’s point of di erence is that its products are made from PVC, not rubber.

“PVC is durable and has a 10-year life, compared with ve years with rubber,” Dylan says.

But perhaps the strongest focus for the company is its commitment to sustainability.

Recycling has always held a prominent position in the company’s ethos and over time it has perfected the technique of turning waste PVC into its high-quality products.

Matta Products is now working with several recycling initiatives to source raw material for its products, which are made from 85% recycled material.

Matta has already recycled 60 million kilograms of waste PVC and rubber to date: its waste streams include electrical cable insulation, clean hospital waste, healthcare manu- facturing waste, road cones, aprons, in atable pool toys and some types of gumboots.

In 2022, Matta teamed up with Agrecovery, a rural recycling programme that has developed a scheme to allow farmers to recycle agricultural waste material for free.

Items such as Elanco Metabolic Solution bags, plastic containers and bale wrapping can be disposed of at collection boxes at Farm Source stores around the country via the Agrecovery scheme.

Elanco’s metabolic bags are made from PVC, which Matta Products can receive for recycling. Once they arrive at Matta Product’s Otaki manufacturing plant, the bags are shredded into smaller particles and blended with other recycled PVC and some additives before being injection-moulded into Matta’s nished goods.

“Using recycled material means there we are reducing virgin material going onto the market so it’s a win for land ll, for sure,” Dylan says. “And, at the end of the product life, the matting is 100% recyclable by Matta, something that is regularly undertaken.”

CHEYENNE NICHOLSON 021 044 1335 offthehoofmedia@gmail.com

TONY BENNY 021 383 156 troutstream@farmside.co.nz

ANNE BOSWELL 027 394 3904 anne@anneboswell.co.nz

Sales ANDY WHITSON 027 626 2269 Sales & Marketing Manager andy.whitson@agrihq.co.nz

STEVE McLAREN – Auckland 027 205 1456 steve.mclaren@agrihq.co.nz