Artificial turf

Artificial turf, or grass, is a plastic synthetic product used instead of natural grass in domed stadiums and school and parks. It has severe environmental problems. Studies have shown that the cost of installation, maintenance, replacement, and disposal exceed the costs of planting and maintaining natural grass. It has also been shown to contribute to global warming as part of the urban heat island.

The History of the Use of Artificial (Plastic) Grass

When owners of professional sports teams began to spend billions of dollars to create all-weather domed stadiums, they faced a problem. The grass could begin to grow with fertilizer and water sprinkling systems, but without sunlight the grass would eventually die. In response a synthetic, green-colored plastic was manufactured out of industrial and petroleum chemicals and worn-out tires.

The replacement of natural grass by artificial (plastic) grass, the first being installed in 1966 in the indoor Houston Astrodome for use by the Houston Astros baseball team, has been adopted to supposedly save maintenance costs by more than 13,000 park districts and school districts in the United States. Between 1200 and 1500 new fields are created annually in the United States. Artificial (plastic) grass, unlike natural grass, does not require irrigation, mowing, aeration, and fertilization. Initially named Chemgrass, the artificial (plastic) grass turf installed in the Astrodome was renamed AstroTurf, a brand name. It became, as “astroturf,” a generic term for artificial (plastic) grass.

AstroTurf was used from the middle of the 1960’s to the early 1990’s for playing fields, including baseball, football, and soccer. Composed of nylon fibers, a highly abrasive material, it caused moderate to severe skin burns. This led to the development of less abrasive polyolefin fibers, primarily the polyethylene and polypropylene derivatives. These are fine, aesthetic issues aside, for indoor air-conditioned indoor playing fields such as those used in professional sports stadiums, where global warming is not an issue. They are not fine for outdoor playing fields.

Aware of the development, school districts, park districts, and university athletic departments viewed artificial (plastic) grass as a means to reduce maintenance and watering costs, both for athletic fields and for general use. These, as well as professional sports teams in outdoor stadiums accordingly replace natural grass with artificial (plastic) grass. The true cost savings are trivial compared to the potential economic, social, demographic, and environmental costs of global warming, to which the replacement of natural grass by artificial (plastic) grass contributes.

The Manufacture of Artificial (Plastic) Grass

To fully understand the toxicity of artificial (plastic) grass, we should discuss its manufacture. The manufacture of artificial (plastic) grass resembles that of the manufacture of carpeting, using tufting equipment. A liquid of colorants and plastics is churned until reaching a level of relatively high viscosity and is then extruded through small openings, creating long strands of material. The diameter of the strand material is reduced by placing it under tension and the resulting yarn is placed on spools which is then placed on the tufting machine, as in carpet manufacture, where hundreds of needles hook the plastic yarn onto a backing. A coating of latex is spread on both the backing and a secondary backing, and the two are placed on a roller and bonded. In this way, about 5 square meters of artificial (plastic) grass can be manufactured per minute, so that a 100 x 100 meter playing surface can be manufactured in about 35 hours.

In some cases, fill material, including crumbled cork, rubber pellets, or sand, or a mixture, is used to support the blades and provide some of the compression feel of soil under natural grass. The material is spread over the artificial blades and leveled down. The tendency exists, however, for the fill material, such as the cork, to disintegrate or become contaminated with foreign material. The resulting compacted material fails to support the blades and maintenance may require removing and replacing the fill material.

As an alternative, to provide more of the “feel” of natural grass, hybrid artificial (plastic) grass is also manufactured. In these, soil, not the fill material noted, is spread between the artificial (plastic) grass blades and grass seed is placed. Such a hybrid product requires both modes of maintenance, of the plastic and of the natural grass.

Health concerns

As the use of artificial turf on athletic fields has spread beyond professional sports, to the local community level, concerns have been raised particularly for the youths playing on these surfaces.

Injuries

Chance of sports injury may be increased due to the unforgiving and unpredictable nature of the turf, especially if not well-maintained

Heat

Artifical turf lacks the natural evaporative cooling action of grass. Surface temperatures can easily exceed one 100 degrees F and present a heat exhaustion and burn hazard.

Respiratory disease and cancer

Shredded automobile tires and other recycled products in the turf may break down to fine particulates and be inhaled. These present a risk for asthma, COPD, and other respiratory diseases. Tires also contain known carcinogens.

Environmental effects

Artificial turf has been shown to contribute the equivalent to about 15 nuclear power plants worth of energy (15 GW) into the atmosphere in the U.S. alone. Roughly the same energy is injected into the atmosphere from European artificial turf fields.

The plastic degradation particles enter the water systems. They, as other microplastics, get ingested by fish and sea fowl. Much end up in the massive garbage patches in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans.

Their decomposition products include carcinogens and heavy metals.

The difficulty in separating the constituents of artificial turf, the grass blades and the fill material, leads to a small amount that is recycled. Most end up dumped in areas near the original installation, such as in empty lots or nearby wooded areas.