COMMENT Artificial Turf


The real horror story


Why would anyone replace a key sustainable component of our living environment with a coal and oil-derived product, one of only limited life span and almost impossible to recycle? When the entire planet is waging war on unnecessary plastics and the climate emergency, what is it that persuades consumers to make this terrible choice? And why cover children’s sports fields in products that can harm their health? Why on earth does anyone choose artificial grass? And why does the Government do nothing about it?


David Hedges-Gower wants some answers


T


he reason is threefold: 1) skilful marketing, 2) the absence of product and consumer information, and 3) the lack of industry and product regulation. It


doesn’t matter where your priorities lie, from saving the planet to saving your pennies; seen from any angle this is clearly a scandal. So, before it is too late, we must dig deeper and expose the murky truths behind this phenomenon - and help stem a slowly emerging environmental disaster. Let’s address the three areas of blame, in turn, starting with marketing, a brilliant lesson in consumer exploitation - and an opportunity to debunk some untruths.


How do you market an unsustainable product and promote the destruction of the living environment? You do it by being economic with your information. People want convenience, and so that’s how the industry sells it. “Why not replace the chore of turf care with a maintenance-free alternative?” they ask. People want to be responsible too, so they also ask: “And why not help save the planet by getting rid of your petrol mower?”


But translate this into straight-talking and you get: “Why not replace nature’s lungs with a petro-chemical product that damages rather than helps the environment, a product that does indeed require maintenance and will need replacing every ten years or so?”


12 PC February/March 2020


And remember, there’s only one recycling centre that, in theory, can deal with this stuff - and it’s in Denmark and is not currently operable!


Of course, if it was called by the accurate name, plastic grass, sales would plummet. And, if buyers saw the growing mountains of worn-out plastic turf accumulating in landfill around the world, they would certainly hesitate. So, these topics are carefully avoided. And you cannot miss the irony of their “environmental” message; just like petrol, plastic grass is an end product of the coal and oil industry, using plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene and nylon. So, whether selling plastic grass or a tank of petrol, it’s all good business for the industries profiting from fossil fuels.


Promoters of plastic grass even say that it is ‘maintenance-free’. This is simply not true, unless you are happy to have a growing build-up of detritus, not to mention self- seeding grasses and weeds. And your plastic grass will certainly need cleaning, and as you hose it down (using more water than is necessary to keep real turf alive), think of the chemical cocktail leaching into the ground. And get this; you may also need to treat your artificial turf against moss! So much for maintenance-free.


Consumer information: Consumers today want information - but, paradoxically, this can make them more ready to believe what they


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