Artificial Turf Materials
Where does it come from and how is it made? Ironically, you will hear the artificial turf industry talk about the gas and oil it takes to mow natural turf. Never mind that studies have shown that one acre of natural turf absorbs 4 times the amount of carbon that is produced from the mowers that keep the grass healthy and to a playable height, but the entire artificial turf product is essentially a petroleum product. There is nothing natural about it! It uses the very fossil fuels in its production that it boasts of saving vis a vis the recycling of tires! Research has shown that with manufacturing, installation, servicing and eventual disposal of a 2 acre artificial turf field produces 55.6 tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The carbon footprint of this is staggering. Add to this the loss of benefits that natural turf provides to the environment and you can easily do the math. The industry hangs their environmental hat on the fact that old tires are ground up to produce the turf infill thus recycling an otherwise difficult material to dispose of. An article boasting of this fact stated that 27,000 old tires are recycled for an average soccer field. Now where do those tires come from? How do they get to the grinding facility? How much energy and what type of energy is used to grind the tires? What kinds of fumes are expelled during the grinding process? How are the grindings transported to the turf companies or sites? What is the carbon footprint of this process? I mean the tires don’t just roll on down the road looking for a recycling plant, do they? I have this image of about 27,000 old tires of different size rolling through a prairie being herded by some old cowboys. Rollin, rollin, rollin…keep those tires rollin, Rawhide! Suddenly the “tire herd” is startled. They were spooked by a band of rusty old nails headed to another recycling plant and stampede a local town. The entire town is covered in tire marks! What a disaster! Artificial turf…is an environmental disaster.
Water
The jury is still out on this subject also. I can only imagine how much water is needed to produce the polyethylene filaments, backing and other components of artificial turf. I am doing that research also. Aside from that, the artificial turf my daughter plays on requires water to cool it down and wash off sweat, dust and bacteria before the game starts and during half time. Not all artificial turf employs this maintenance regime which begs the question of how this is accomplished on these other fields…and what kinds of cumulative health problems are being created there? I digress again… The irrigation heads they use at the Berkley field are water cannons. There are six of them shooting out an amazing amount of water. Similar Rainbird irrigation heads with a 1.38” nozzle size can push out 150 gallons of water per minute. With 6 of them running at once that is 900 gallons of water per minute for 7 minutes or 6,300 gallons water. Multiply that by 2 for the beginning of the game and half time shower and there are 12,600 gallons of potable water being used on the artificial turf. (That is significantly more water than natural turf would require in the same day and…the water would not need to be potable, but reclaimed or grey water instead.) The fields are watered to reduce temperatures and rinse off the sweat, dust and other bodily fluids. At a later writing I will make a comparison of the amount of water needed and type of water needed…and I stress the word needed, to maintain a playable natural turf, compared to the amount of water that needs to be put down on artificial turf for maintenance and antiseptic chemicals to alleviate health concerns.
Conclusion
Artificial turf is green in color and garners the artificial turf industry lots of green money, but it is NOT environmentally green. It slyly hangs it environmental hat on tire recycling, water savings and the carbon footprint of maintenance, however each of these so called benefits are far outweighed by the heat island effect they contribute to, health hazards and the positive effects that it erases when the potential for natural turf is removed from the same area. The fact is with proper turf management natural turf will outperform artificial turf in terms of its carbon footprint hands down. New technologies in irrigation controllers, reclaimed water use, drought tolerant grass species, turf management and soil management provide an environmentally sound solution to the growing demand for healthy playing surfaces that our children can enjoy. If the concern is Global Warming and preventing the output of those gases that contribute to the problem; then artificial turf is an offender and natural turf is the answer. There is no doubt that there are needs for more playing fields for our children however artificial turf is not the answer.
Like artificial turf, there are lots of green products and services that are flooding the market. Not all of them are environmentally green. Do the research, ask questions and make informed decisions. The green movement is coming at a great time and thankfully the informed and concerned public is demanding these environmentally sound products and services. Our environment is in dire need of this new paradigm shift to land stewardship. Buyer and land steward beware!
I have included some links to other sources of information on the subject.
Hazardous Chemicals in Synthetic Turf
The Myth of Rubberized Landscapes
Serious Questions About New-Generation Artificial Turf That Require Answers
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