Background

Artificial turf pitches have increased recently since they need less maintenance operations and water than natural grass (more than 200 K€ saved over 6 years per football pitch).

Nevertheless, the service life of artificial turf surfaces is limited, since there is a gradual loss of properties during its use, and might be specially shortened by inadequate upkeeping. At present, when these properties cannot be recovered and the surface becomes dangerous for the sports practice, it is removed and directly moved to landfill sites, producing a high environmental impact.

The material in a soccer pitch (approximately 6.500 m²) is more than 100 tonnes (50% of quartz sand, 40% of rubber and 10% of synthetic fibres) just before disposing it. Currently, in the EU 9 million m² of artificial turf are installed p.a., only for contact sports use. This will generate more than 157K tonnes p.a. of “non dangerous” waste in approximately eight years.