ESPN
Jordan Raanan 
May 12, 2026, 12:00 PM ET


While NFL players watch some of their stadiums get new grass fields installed for upcoming FIFA World Cup games, it only reinforces their desire to move away from turf.

Fifteen of the 30 NFL stadiums use some sort of artificial turf for American football games. Players have become more vocal in recent years about their desire to play on grass.

"What we want is good grass fields. Good, solid fields," NFLPA executive director JC Tretter said recently on the "Not Just Football" podcast hosted by Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward. "You don't just want to pull out the [municipal] golf course grass. On every field, you want high-quality surfaces. I think one thing is understanding what our players care about. And there is something there that the data hasn't been able to spit back out at us. Which if you ask every player that we polled, 1,700 players, 92% say they want grass over turf.

"There is something about the feeling of being on grass, the body feels different. I think if you ask the coaches, just standing on grass vs. standing on turf for three hours feels different. There is something there that impacts the body."
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UBC researchers found Metro Vancouver’s artificial turf fields leach 6PPD‑quinone—a tire chemical deadly to coho salmon—into stormwater for years after installation, pointing to urgent needs for treatment and safer infills.
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Lou Bosshart
Mar 17, 2026

A new study from the University of British Columbia has found that artificial turf fields across Metro Vancouver leach 6PPD-quinone, a chemical known to kill coho salmon, into municipal stormwater systems—and the contamination persists long after the fields are installed.

Researchers traced the pollution to crumb rubber infill made from recycled tires, a material widely used on synthetic turf fields. The team found it consistently released 6PPD-quinone and other contaminants across fields of different ages.

“An average turf field contains about 125 tonnes of crumb rubber, roughly 20,000 tires,” said Katie Moloney, a PhD student in environmental engineering in UBC’s Scholes Lab. “With fields typically lasting a decade or more, they can become long-term sources of tire-derived pollution entering stormwater pipes, and ultimately fish-bearing waterways—frequently without treatment.”

The project began after streamkeepers in North Vancouver contacted the researchers in late 2023, reporting that crumb rubber was washing off a nearby turf field. Dead coho had also been found in an adjacent stream.

Bethany Rodgers
USA TODAY NETWORK
Feb. 2, 2026, 4:55 a.m. ET

​Key points

• A Danish company's plan to build an artificial turf recycling plant in Pennsylvania has failed due to bankruptcy.
• The state is now responsible for cleaning up thousands of tons of abandoned turf stockpiled across three counties.
• The abandoned turf, which may contain "forever chemicals," will now be sent to a landfill instead of being recycled.

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Five years ago, a Danish company announced it was taking abroad its mission to save artificial athletic fields from the trash heap, rolling out an ambitious plan to build its first North American recycling plant in Pennsylvania. 

Officials in the commonwealth welcomed it with open arms and economic perks, celebrating the project as a job creator and a more sustainable way to deal with the spent plastic fields.
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But after years of hiccups and delays, the transatlantic effort by recycling company Re-Match has crumbled under financial pressures, leaving behind a trail of debts and mounds of green, waterlogged turf that will end up in the landfill after all.

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If you grew up in America — or much of the rest of the world — in the past 30 years, chances are that you’ve played on synthetic turf. 

The small, spongy black beads used as fill material in most artificial turf fields are called crumb rubber, which has long been touted as a major win for recycling. However, conflicting studies have alternately identified crumb rubber as either safe for people to play atop or dangerous to human health.

New research out of Northeastern University investigated the decay cycle of crumb rubber, which is fashioned out of old tires. By simulating the conditions in which the rubber decays, like strong sunlight, they discovered that crumb rubber is highly reactive, generating hundreds of previously untracked chemicals as it decays, some of which are hazardous to humans.

Swimming upstream
​Zhenyu Tian, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, says researchers have long known that tire rubber produces harmful transformation chemicals as it breaks down. A transformation chemical is the product of a chemical reaction, the new chemical left behind. In the case of artificial turf, transformation results from things like sunlight, rain and natural decay over time.

After decades of playing on an artificial surface, Nebraska football is planning to install natural grass inside Memorial Stadium.

Kaleb Henry, July 13, 2024

Traces of a banned substance were found in eight football players.

THU, 27 NOV, 2025 
by NICK AMES

The Norwegian club Vålerenga have called for anti-doping regulations to be strengthened after an extraordinary case in which a player from their women’s team was found to have ingested a banned stimulant from rubber crumb in an artificial pitch.
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A seven-month saga concluded on Wednesday when the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) chose not to appeal against the decision of Anti-Doping Norway (Adno) that the player was faultless. But the landmark case has highlighted the risks to footballers of environmental exposure to banned substances and opened up the possibility of further controversies emerging around the thousands of synthetic pitches across Europe.

BY LIBBY PALANZA NOVEMBER 5, 2025

South Portland residents voted Tuesday to approve a natural grass field for their high school’s athletic complex by a decisive margin of 54 percent in favor to 46 percent opposed.

In parallel, a resounding 73 percent opposed the alternative of an artificial turf field which only 23 percent supported.

Unlike last year’s substantially more costly proposal, voters had the choice between a $4.6 million natural grass field and a $5.5 million synthetic turf field. Both projects included a new track, new lighting and permanent bathrooms.
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Voters were able to cast their ballots in support of one, both, or neither of these options.

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An artificial turf field on a summer day is hotter than grass and asphalt. Here’s what to know about the debate over grass vs. turf.

Column by Michael J. Coren

Yale epidemiologist Vasilis Vasiliou won’t let any of his five children play on artificial turf fields.

His research on the infill for synthetic turf — typically ground-up tires — identified the presence of dozens of known carcinogens, hormone disrupters, toxic metals and phthalates. What’s really needed, he said, are rigorous studies showing the extent to which those chemicals find their way into young players’ bodies and what that might mean for their health over time.

Until then, Vasiliou said, “I would not recommend parents let their children play on there. Period.”

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