Disposal of school's artificial turf field highlights growing environmental concerns

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.”
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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.