Environmentally-friendly artificial grass?

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 28 January 2010 - 2:44pm, by Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

Imagine a lawn or a sports field made from artificial grass. It's hard to imagine something more unnatural, but Desso, a major Belgian-Dutch carpet manufacturer, is planning to introduce completely recyclable, environmentally-friendly artificial grass this year.

Desso's managing director Stef Kranendijk explains why artificial grass is better for the environment than the natural stuff:

"A vast amount of expensive water is necessary to keep playing fields green. And then there's the pesticides and herbicides used to get rid of the weeds, that's a real assault on the environment. You can also play far fewer matches on natural grass. If you are planning a competition, you need at least five playing fields; that uses five times the water and pesticides."

Farewell

The artificial grass industry focuses primarily on the sports market. The walls of the reception centre at the Desso factory in Dendermonde is resplendent with shirts from well-known clubs, including the Spanish national football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, Arsenal and Anderlecht FC, that have all bid natural grass playing fields farewell.

Mr Kranendijk says the company has still got a lot to achieve: "Just eight percent of the sports fields in the European Union are artificial grass, so we've got a long way to go".

Unfortunately artificial grass is made of plastic, or to be slightly more precise, polyethylene. And until now, when it wore out, that huge plastic carpet ended up in an incinerator or was dumped on a rubbish tip. But things are changing: Desso is planning to develop a grass carpet that is completely recyclable; when the plastic playing field has worn out, it will be returned to the factory and entirely reused without any loss of quality.

The principle is called Cradle-to-Cradle or C2C. It was originally a US recycling philosophy, but the principle is winning more and more adherents in the Netherlands. It's hardly a surprising phenomena as 100 percent recycling is good for the environment, cheaper in the long run and gives companies a very valuable green image. It's a win-win situation all round. Mr Kranendijk is the first to admit that his clients are prepared to pay extra for a super-environmentally-friendly product.

Basics

Just because 100 percent C2C is not yet possible doesn't detract from the basic idea. It is still impossible to expect that the plastic for the artificial grass will be created from plants - futuristic biopolymers - or that the vehicles transporting the carpet will run on green electricity, but that is the ultimate aim: 100 percent recyclable and zero percent pollution.

Desso is making a valiant attempt: the electricity that runs the factory is water-generated. It's not perfect, after all, reservoirs and dams also damage the environment, but the electricity generated is far cleaner than the electricity generated by coal, gas or nuclear power plants. A significant proportion of the water is also re-claimed and re-used and the company hopes to raise that proportion to 100 percent in the near future.

Competition

And then there is the recyclable artificial grass itself. Understandably, Mr Kranendijk refused to reveal exactly how Desso plans to make it, as competition is stiff. However, he did say that the blades of grass and the backing will be created from the same material. It is far from simple and has taken years of research as the two components perform very, very different functions and must fulfil other requirements. However, success is on the horizon and once the playing field has worn out, the entire grass carpet will be taken up and melted down into new polyethylene granules and used to make another artificial playing field.

At the moment, C2C artificial grass is in the final phase of development and the company hopes to lay the first 100 percent recyclable sports field in April, where athletes can train to their hearts’ content, happy in the knowledge that it's made of eco-plastic.