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Playful expectations Children learn and grow with play, especially outdoors, though research shows that children are now only spending two hours or less outside – 36% less than previous generations. Hayball associate and Landscape Australia writer Natalia Krysiak returns from her travels in Tokyo feeling inspired with ideas of how to create cities that support the wellbeing of children and encourage outdoor play. Krysiak describes the excitement of active children in the densest city in the world, Tokyo. She says, “Scattered among the trees are a mud kitchen, a zip-line, a secret tree house and makeshift cubbies used by children of all ages and abilities: the type of play that childhood dreams are made of.” Tokyo offers 80 playparks like this connecting children to unstructured nature-based play and Krysiak sees …

Recycled plastic roads now on trial: Inventors are currently trialling recycled plastic road technology in the Netherlands, says The Economist, with a 30 metre bicycle track opened in early September. The first prefabricated PlasticRoad track in Zwolle consists of modular sections made in a factory from 70% recycled plastic and 30% polypropylene. Developers say it includes recycled plastic equivalent to more than 218,000 plastic cups or 500,000 bottle caps. Sensors to measure temperature, the number of bike passages, durability, flexing and the flow of water through drainage channels, are also fitted inside the path. Two Dutch firms – KWS, a road builder, and Wavin, a firm that makes plastic piping – are developing the product in partnership with Total, a French oil-and-gas firm. The trial follows an Australian test project installed in May, with a …