The Issue

Artificial turf is expected to produce 1 million to 4 million tons of waste in the next 10 years. The worst part is that as of now the turf has nowhere to go, according to solid waste industry analysts(Woodall). Despite the fact that the turf field are advertised as being 100% recyclable there are no facilities in the US that are able to fully recycle the fields. The fields most commonly end up in empty lots, backyards, in public spaces and on private land. Sometimes, they are given permission to be there. However in most cases, they have been illegally dumped by the contractors paid to remove them(Woodall). If the wasted rolls of turf get thrown into a field and left to sit bad things can start to happen. Stagnant water can start to fill up and sit inside the rolls which leads to attracting rodents and mosquitoes. Also a few studies have shown that the rubber that is used in the turf can be toxic if it left unchecked. Recently in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., turf fields that were left to rot have tested positive for lead and toxins that are known to cause cancer, low birth weight in babies and other diseases(King).You would think that we can put the old turf rolls in the landfill to be incinerated but that doesn't work for two reasons. First some of the materials used to make turf fields, such as industrial silica sand, rubber bits, and some plastics, can’t be incinerated. Secondly it is very expensive to take the rolls to the landfill. It’s about $60 to $70 a ton to dispose of turf in a landfill. Each roll of turf is any where from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. Currently the average "turf dump" has about 3,000 rolls so the landfill option would cost about $200,000(Wolf). And that's not even a clean option for the turf. There are many alternatives for the turf that can guarantee that it doesn't end up wasted.