 By Mia Alva, Jul 3, 2025 (photo by Mia Alva)
After agreeing to replace the La Cañada High School turf field in November 2024, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board recently approved a change order due to an unforeseen condition, increasing the contract by $113,000. Part of the original agreement with FieldTurf USA was to reuse the existing shock pads that lie beneath the synthetic turf, as they had passed testing that assessed the hardness of the playing surface. “It was expected that only approximately 5,000 square feet of the existing shock pads would need to be replaced,” Melissa Shepherd, assistant superintendent of business and operations, said to the board. “After removal of the existing turf, it was discovered that more than 5,000 square feet was needed to be replaced and unusable.” Since the proposal cost included a $40,000 allowance for unforeseen items, the increase will come out to $73,447 and make the full contract amount $909,258 instead of the original amount of $795,118. ...the district anticipated 20 years of life out of the current shock pads, which didn’t pan out. Shepherd said that certain sections were wearing differently. These are excerpts, read the full article here.  STEVEN CORDER APR 13, 2025 6:36 PM EDT When SMU Football hits the field on August 30 against East Texas A&M, it won’t just be the scoreboard catching fans’ eyes—it’ll be the ground beneath their cleats. Gerald J. Ford Stadium is trading in its synthetic turf for a natural grass surface, a decision rooted in both tradition and player safety. Artificial turf has long been criticized for contributing to non-contact injuries. A 2022 NFLPA report showed players are 32% more likely to suffer a non-contact knee injury on turf compared to grass. For SMU, fresh off an 11-3 season and a College Football Playoff appearance, keeping players healthy is a top priority. “Grass is easier on the joints, the knees, the ankles. This is for our players,” said one staffer familiar with the project. Read the article A school official from Massachusetts asked this question recently. They were given an estimate on the cost for their school to switch back to natural grass. The answer: A landscape architect says about $526,000 Cheaper than most synthetic turf replacements! See 1:39:41 in the recording below  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.
 by Noël Fletcher Dec 22, 2024 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is deciding whether to create a national program to strengthen demand for the $2.2 billion natural grass industry since American sod is facing an eroding market from plastic turf and consumer misconceptions. ..... The Fake Grass Threat
Although natural grass is being replaced in homes and public areas by mulch, brick, concrete pavers and some rubberized playgrounds, its main economic threat is from fake grass. “Plastic, artificial turf is the primary competitor and most common alternative to natural grass for athletic fields on school grounds, public parks, and collegiate or professional sports venues,” the government says. It cited a 2020 Synthetic Turf Council Market Report for North America listing a 15% growth rate since 2017 in the current $2.7 billion artificial turf industry, with increasing demand coming from athletic field and landscaping applications. Numerous grass growers and organizations that rely on natural sod backed the federal government’s overture (through the USDA’s proposed rule in 2023) to step in and help create the industry-funded promotion, research, and information program for natural grass sod products. A request for public comments resulted in 173 comments submitted prior to a December 2023 deadline. Read the article in Forbes.  By Evan Drellich
Oct 21, 2024 The A’s are going to play on natural grass in Sacramento, not turf as previously planned, a change preferred by the players and made out of concern for the heat. Starting in 2025 the A’s are going to share a stadium, Sutter Health Park, with its incumbent tenant, the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. MLB previously planned to install a synthetic surface in no small part because it could have been more durable with two teams calling the field home. But the temperatures from a synthetic surface might still have been intense during warm-up and batting practice. “Since the beginning of this process, we have worked collaboratively with the MLBPA to incorporate feedback from major and minor league players regarding the facilities, amenities, and playing conditions in Sacramento,” a league spokesperson said. “Based on feedback from players, as well as guidance from MLB’s long-time field expert, MLB, the A’s and Sutter Health Park have decided to maintain a natural grass field. Our shared, primary concern is ensuring the best and safest playing surface for the A’s, River Cats, and visiting players. “In light of the players’ clear preference for natural grass, and after weighing with the MLBPA the potential risks and benefits of maintaining natural grass versus replacing the playing surface with synthetic turf, all the parties are aligned in moving forward with a natural grass field for Opening Day 2025.” Read the full New York Times article  By David Abel Boston Globe Staff, Updated July 18, 2024
PORTSMOUTH — Two years ago, as local officials debated whether to replace the city’s high school athletic fields with new artificial turf, Superintendent Zach McLaughlin promised the school board that tens of thousands of square feet of the old turf would be recycled. Local environmental advocates urged the city to plant grass instead, noting that artificial turf is not only filled with toxic chemicals and requires large amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture, but that it’s difficult to recycle. They also noted that there’s little evidence that such large fields are ever fully recycled, despite industry claims. The school district decided to proceed with installing new turf and paid a Massachusetts company more than a half million dollars to oversee the work, including recycling. Nearly a year after the Canton-based Atlantic Sports Group removed the old turf, environmental advocates did something that appears to be unprecedented and confirmed long-held fears about the industry’s turf-recycling claims: They managed to track down the old turf and discovered that it had been abandoned in an otherwise empty, dimly lit warehouse in New Jersey. They also found it listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Read the full article  Law.Com
July 05, 2024 by Colleen Murphy A New Jersey federal magistrate judge has preliminarily approved a class action settlement in multidistrict litigation over allegedly defective synthetic field turf which included plaintiffs in the Garden State, California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. Read the article |
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