 Chapel Hill's Kenan Stadium will return to a natural grass field in 2025. By Mike Kadlick The North Carolina Tar Heels are making a significant change to their playing surface ahead of the 2025 season. In consultation with new head coach Bill Belichick, Chapel Hill's Kenan Stadium will return to a natural grass field in 2025, the UNC athletic department announced in a press release on Monday. They had been playing on a synthetic turf surface since 2020. "With our current turf reaching the end of its lifespan, the timing made sense to return Kenan Stadium to its natural grass roots," Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. "Our staff takes great pride in maintaining a top-tier field that reflects the excellence of UNC Football, and we look forward to cheering on the team as it competes on a world-class natural grass surface next season."  By Guy Oldenkotte Jan 7, 2025 Synthetic turf recycling pioneer Re-Match has announced that it will discontinue its operations at the Herning factory in Denmark. The Danish subsidiary has filed for restructuring with the relevant authorities. According to a statement, “the industry and tender system still does not fully or sufficiently incentivize municipalities and turf providers to recognize the value of circularity and to use the most effective circular solution to handle their used synthetic turf.” This decision to discontinue operations at the Herning facility follows an evaluation of the Company’s financial position, operational challenges, and the broader economic and industrial environment. “I highly regret the closure of our exceptional Danish operations and the difficult parting of ways with many of the highly capable, mission driven colleagues at our Herning site – we were all working towards a shared goal. We will continue to make every effort to achieve this goal, accelerating the sustainability transition of this industry” says Coen Rooijmans, CEO of Re-Match. Read the announcement  Santa Clara County Supervisors are considering an artificial turf ban on county land, with proponents citing potential health concerns and a global plastic pollution problem. But opponents argue the ban would only exacerbate an existing shortage of places for kids to play sports. By Candice Nguyen, Michael Bott, Jeremy Carroll, Michael Horn, Robbie Beasom and Michael Campbell, December 30, 2024 As Santa Clara County supervisors consider a proposed artificial turf ban on county-owned land, parents and activists are pointing to the disposal of a local high school’s old field to highlight emerging concerns that plastic fields can’t be meaningfully recycled and come with a host of potential environmental consequences. When Saratoga High School replaced its old artificial turf field last year, district records show a company called TurfCycle USA issued a chain of custody letter stating, “14 trucks were loaded from Saratoga HS and shipped to the TurfCycle facility” in Pescadero. From there, the document states, the old turf field would be “re-purposed into the local community for general landscaping, batting cages, gym flooring, cross-fit, sport related ground coverings and erosion control.” A group of parents and local activists who had been tracking news reports from across the country about giant rolls of artificial turf found piling up in fields or illegally dumped followed three of those trucks, however, which they say did not go to the Pescadero facility as the TurfCycle document stated. Instead, parents watched and snapped photos as the three trucks left more than 50 large rolls of artificial turf in a San Martin field, about 75 miles away from the TurfCycle facility and in an entirely different county. View the full investigative report from NBC.
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