Artificial Turf – what is the true cost?

 

Have you been for a nice walk lately and seen what is beginning to appear on front gardens?

Artificial turf – better known as plastic grass – and if you will excuse the pun it is sprouting up everywhere – and that is of course just what it isn’t doing because it is plastic and it doesn’t grow!

It’s tempting, isn’t it?  No more mowing.  A perfect looking lawn. A surface the children can play on all year round and without mud being walked into the house afterwards.

There are downsides though….  It needs to be cleaned as there is nowhere for leaves and other debris to go. It can get too hot in the summer to play on and given the way our climate is changing this is likely to become more of an issue. It can also set on fire – there have been incidents of it burning when the sun hits glass or a mirror and shines directly onto the ‘grass’ it scorches it and can cause a fire. I’m fairly sure this is something the manufacturers never mention in their advertising.

From a wildlife perspective there is no life underneath artificial turf.  There is no soil, so no worms for birds to feed on, no worms to pull the dead leaves down into the soil and nowhere for leaves to rot down. Whilst your children might enjoy playing on it wildlife certainly does not.  Our gardens form some of the last refuges for wildlife due to the way intensive farming has reduced wildlife in our countryside.  Surely, we need to nurture our gardens and develop them into oases for wildlife.

Then what about the environmental impact?  Artificial turf is made from a mix of plastics, typically polyethylene and polypropylene, that give off harmful fumes as they degrade, as all plastics do.  As they break up, they release plastic pieces into the environment, some of them so small they can barely be seen, but can end up in our water courses and ultimately in us.  A recent study of the plastic pollution in the sea off Barcelona found that 15% of the plastic particles above 5mm long came from artificial turf.  Plastic particles released into our soil are virtually impossible to remove. There is a high carbon cost in its manufacture and when it comes to end of life and recycling that’s virtually impossible due to the number of containments embedded in it. 

Looking at the advantages and disadvantages, can we really afford it?

Plastic pollution and the W.I.

A few months ago, we received an email from Kimcote and Walton Women’s Institute, asking if anyone would be able to give them a talk about plastic pollution. Kelly Swann volunteered and she went to visit their group on 7^th February.

Kelly introduced her talk by explaining that her interest in plastic pollution dates back to a holiday in Greece in the 1990s, when she stayed near a nesting site for loggerhead turtles and saw them swimming in the sea. She was captivated and has been interested in these beautiful creatures ever since. So when she heard about turtles dying as a result of plastic pollution, she immediately began to find out more.

Plastic was invented in 1862 but it was not until the Second World War that the industry really began to grow, as plastics were used for everything from military vehicles to radar insulation. After the war, the industry needed new consumers and they turned to the domestic market. Plastic was considered a miracle material at this time because it could be moulded into any shape, was easily mass-produced, it was cheap and it was waterproof. It was also non-biodegradable and we have only recently started to understand what that means for our environment.

Nearly all of the plastic ever created is still in existence and Greenpeace reveal that an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every year, which is a truck load of rubbish every minute. Some of this plastic has collected in the North Pacific Gyre between Alaska and Russia, a floating garbage patch that is twice the size of Texas.

Kelly spent some time explaining the effect that plastic pollution is having on sea life. For example, the National Geographic recently reported that a pilot whale had died in Thailand and was found to have 80 plastic shopping bags in its stomach, effectively causing it to starve to death. Seabirds have also been affected and one study found that 90% have got plastic in their stomachs. Animals often cannot tell the difference between small pieces of plastic and their normal food and so they eat rubbish and feed it to their young by mistake.

Recycling plastic is difficult because there are so many different types that have to be treated separately. In the UK, each local authority has a different recycling scheme, so it can be difficult for people to know what to put in the recycling bin. However, individuals can help by trying to reduce the amount of disposable plastic that they use. Kelly gave some examples of how to do this, including Morsbags, bamboo toothbrushes and solid shampoo bars. Finally, she encouraged everyone not to despair at the size of the problem but to do what they can at home and to join Friends of the Earth to call for changes in legislation!

The meeting ended with tea and biscuits and more informal conversation about what we can all do. Many of the women present had already started to make changes and had their own tips about plastic-free teabags and other items. Thank you to Kimcote and Walton WI for taking an interest in this important issue!

If you're interested in what you can do to reduce your use of plastic, national Friends of the Earth have just launched a #DrasticOnPlastic Timer Challenge.

Build a plastic monster

We asked members of the public to help construct a giant sea-monster from waste plastic.

The Highcross invited us to take over an unused unit at the Churchgate entrance, in order to highlight the dangers of plastics, especially single-use plastics. We used the occasion of Halloween to highlight that, rather than zombies and vampires, we should truly be afraid about the role of plastics in the environment. From the streets of Leicester, to tropical islands, to the deepest parts of the ocean, plastic pollution is now regarded as a serious problem which will definitely come back to haunt us.

Shoppers and passers were given the chance to help construct the 'Kraken', a monster of the deep, from plastic waste. The finished Kraken will be displayed in the Highcross as a reminder of how plastics are terrorizing the oceans.

In addition to constructing the Kraken, we offered tips to shoppers about how to reduce their plastic waste and invited them to make and share a 'plastic pledge selfie'. We also created a mural of a clean and polluted ocean on the giant chalkboard.