Artificial Turf’s Big Lie: Old Fields Not Recycled

No Recycling Facilities, So Tons of Plastic Carpet Dumped

Washington, DC — Artificial turf fields have been marketed as an environmentally responsible alternative to grass fields, providing a solution for a nasty solid waste problem by reusing old tires that are later recycled after removal. But this greenwashing is all a hoax, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Since there are no U.S. facilities for recycling, the plastic carpets and rubber crumb infill are often dumped or sent back to landfills in a form that is even more environmentally problematic.

There are currently an estimated 13,000 artificial turf fields in the U.S., a number that is growing by more than 1,000 each year. A synthetic field usually covers about 80,000 square feet and contains roughly 400,000 pounds of infill, consisting of shredded tires or other material, and 40,000 pounds of carpet. An artificial turf field will last eight-to-10 years, with most warranties running for only eight years. At that point, the turf is ripped out at which point new difficulties arise.

An 80,000 square-ft. sports field fills between fifteen and twenty 30-yard dumpsters. That volume would cost roughly $30,000 to $60,000 to landfill. To avoid that cost, vendors routinely advise municipalities that there are recycling facilities in the U.S.; specifically, they point to a company called Re-Match with a facility in Pennsylvania. One typical pitch claims –

“By partnering with Re-Match Turf Recycling, we will take the necessary steps to ensure that the synthetic carpet is recycled and does not end up in a landfill.”

Despite these claims, the Re-Match facility does not exist. An email from the CEO of Re-Match says, “there is no synthetic turf recycling plant in America yet.”..

https://www.peer.org/artificial-turfs-big-lie-old-fields-not-recycled/