ARTIFICIAL TURF FOOTBALL PITCHES AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

1. What is an artificial turf football pitch made of?

To understand this, let’s try to learn about the structure of artificial turf football pitches. They are known to differ according to their use, but they are definitely all built in layers. The surface consists of artificial turf made of a non-abrasive polyethylene filament, below which lies an infill that acts as a stabiliser for this turf, making it ideal for this sport. These layers are made of SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) granules and sand. Then under that lies a dark layer made of rubber, which separates the infill from the ‘drainage’ part, the bottom layer that allows water to drain away. Ongoing maintenance is clearly necessary for such pitches, therefore a rotary mower should be used.

2. Replacing a worn-out artificial turf football pitch

Re-use is often incorrectly defined as recycling by some of the many companies specialising in turf removal. In this context, re-use is when the turf (or certain parts of it) is removed and re-used in a new installation with the same or similar function. By contrast, the recycling of materials generally involves some form of processing before the material can be re-used. Although various companies have designed their own innovative methods for removing and rolling up turf, turf removal equipment has only been readily available in recent years.

3. Recycling products for greater sustainability

Unfortunately, technologies for recycling the materials used for artificial turf surfaces are still little developed. Many European entrepreneurs are already embarking on what appears to be a real challenge nowadays, i.e. not only disposing of discarded turf – in some cases, the disposal of such turf involves incineration or landfilling – but also striving to recycle it.  In order to do this, machines must be designed to separate the artificial grass filament from the infill, and then separate the sand from the rubber granules. It could be re-used in the building industry. The raw material obtained – sand, rubber and plastic fibre – could then be re-sold or used in new production cycles, also for installing new artificial turf football pitches.