Today: Walter Johnson HS Artificial Turf Field Off to Landfill in So. Virginia @MCPSSERT #GreenTeam #EarthDayEveryDay #Landfill #PlasticPollution

Here is video of the plastic grass and tons of ground up tires from the Walter Johnson High School football field being loaded into a dumpster today. 

Off to the landfill in Southern Virginia where it can live for the next 1,000+ years with the plastic and ground up tires from Richard Montgomery High School.

Remember that MCPS put out a vague memo about what would happen to the WJHS artificial turf when it was removed.  Maybe the memo was vague for a reason? 

Artificial Turf’s Next Home?

With Montgomery County Public Schools replacing the first of its artificial fields this summer, disposal of the old material has been called into question...

..."’Repurposing/reusing’ is purely a euphemism for dumping ... a mess of worn-out plastic carpet with literally tons of pulverized tire waste and sand spilling everywhere,” Michels wrote.

#“There really aren’t two sides to this story,” Michels said. “Do you really want to do this, take 40,000 pounds of plastic and [the rubber crumbs] and put them in a landfill? At this step, MCPS should say we made a mistake, this is the first one [of the fields to be recycled], Walter Johnson’s next up. This is a harbinger of things to come.”

#Montgomery County Public Schools did not respond to specific questions regarding this story. Derek Turner of MCPS Office of Communications responded by sending links to the statements by Zuckerman.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2018/aug/07/artificial-turfs-next-home/

Parade of Pollution: July 18, 2018 - Richard Montgomery High School Artificial Turf and Crumb Rubber Removal #ArtificialTurfPrivilege

Part 1:
These pictures were taken on July 18, 2018, and document the start of the removal of the football field of plastic grass and 120 tons of crumb rubber from Richard Montgomery High School.  The black on the ground is crumb rubber (ground up used tires).  The crumb rubber is shown on the ground and in the water that is backed up at the storm drain.  See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.

All pictures above were taken at Richard Montgomery High School on July 18, 2018.

RMHS Plastic Field Headed to Brunswick, VA Landfill. Thank you Virginia! #artificialturf #makingmemories

8/6/18 Update:  See all the environmental pollution generated by the removal of the artificial turf at RMHS at this link. 

Yesterday, we showed you the dumpster full of plastic artificial grass, ground up rubber tires, hay and plastic bottles at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland.

That dumpster showed that despite years of promises, the Montgomery County Board of Education and Montgomery County County Council were not going to recycle the artificial turf football field at Richard Montgomery High School.

Instead, at least 8 tons of the field are being sent to the Montgomery County incinerator in dumpsters.

But what happens when those dumpsters arrive at the Dickerson incinerator?  As we know from the September 26, 2011, Montgomery County Council hearing on artificial turf (the one where Councilmember Roger Berliner cut the video feed), artificial turf plastic grass is a "nonprocessable waste" (Page 86 of Power Point) and if delivered to the Dickerson incinerator will be sent to our out-of-state landfill in Brunswick, Virginia.

Not only is the RMHS artificial turf field not being recycled, at least 8 tons of it will permanently reside in the landfill in Brunswick, Virginia for centuries.  Artificial turf football fields are used for 10 years and take 1,000 years to decompose (or will never decompose) in a landfill.

You can take your grandchildren to visit the Brunswick, Virginia landfill and rehash the football, lacrosse, and soccer games that were played on the field during it's very short life at RMHS.  And while you are there you can also visit with the artificial turf fields from Blair HS, Wootton HS, Walter Johnson HS, Paint Branch HS, Gaithersburg HS, Whitman HS, BCC High School, Somerset ES and all the others to come.  They will all be there soon.

https://www.scribd.com/document/66591209/T-E-9-26-11-AT-slides

https://www.nmwda.org/montgomery-county/

Click here for more on the story of the removal of the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field.