Natural grass least expensive over the course of one year

Trading Tradition for Turf
by J. Daniel Fernandez
September 30, 2009

...Brad Fresenburg is an expert in artificial turf grass. He supervises the day-to-day operations of the University of Missouri Turfgrass Research Center. Fresenburg calculated the costs of a regular grass field and a crumb rubber synthetic grass field, and found natural grass the least expensive over the course of one year.

Fresenburg showed the price of installing and maintaining each type of field when broken down by year is as follows: The natural field has a cost of $33,522, including the price of replacing the grass each year. 

The cost to purchase, install, maintain, and ultimately dispose of the field costs approximately $600,000 over 10 years, or $60,000 a year. This overall cost far outweighs any recycling credit HSU receives for using crumb rubber. “It’s in the low thousands,” said Moxon.

The artificial turf also dips into the university’s wallet to a tune of more than $300,000 for hazardous waste disposal, said George Cowan of Targa Pro. As a distributor of 100% recyclable artificial turf, Cowan said it is common for consumers not to be told about the added disposal fee. “In order to dispose of most artificial turf, you’ll have to pay a hazardous disposal fee.” Since crumb rubber is made from tires it can not be recycled...