Choosing Synthetic Turf is Choosing Environmental Harm

by Sarah Jeanne Royer

The contents of this column were recently presented to Town Manager Richard Johnson, Glastonbury Town Council Members and Glastonbury Board of Education. The comments are by  Sara-Jeannie Royer, PhD., a research scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego, Center for Marine Debris Research, Hawaii Pacific University Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University, O’ahu

“Please do not install any more artificial turf fields in Glastonbury. Plastic grass pollutes, creates heat islands, off gases methane and ethylene, contributes to more red tides and algae blooms, puts more micro plastics into our drinking water, our waterways and oceans, and our food.”

“At the University of Hawaii, Center for Microbial Oceanography, Research and Education, we studied the degradation of plastic in the environment. The findings of our research show that the impact of plastic in the environment is even worse than what we thought.”

“Methane is 21 times more powerful than CO2, which is one of the reasons many scientists nowadays are studying methane production in the environment. This unexpected discovery was the start of my two year postdoctoral studies in Hawaii where I continued focusing on methane, CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted from plastics. Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are contributors to climate change.”

“We tested the most commonly used type of plastic in the world and discovered that polyethylene is the plastic type that releases methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), ethane and propylene at the highest concentrations. Bad news, polyethylene is also the most prevalent plastic produced, consumed and discarded in the environment today. It also degrades quickly due to its weak chemical structure and eventually contributes to the pool of microplastics.”

“As an Oceanographer, my main focus is in the ocean, but in order to understand our study further we created a comparison of plastics on land not submerged in water. This is when things got really scary. Not only are plastics in water producing greenhouse gases, but when exposed on beaches or in land, they produce 2 times more methane and 76 times more ethylene versus than when in the ocean.” “This indicates that while the negative effects of plastic in the oceans are significant, the greenhouse gases emitted from plastics exposed to air in a terrestrial environment is even greater. Our results even show that once initiated, the production of hydrocarbon gases continues in the dark. Synthetic turfs are made out of polyethylene resulting in synthetic turf being responsible for emitting greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change. Synthetic turf has a huge surface area because of all the small pieces it is made out of, hence the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from synthetic is much higher than a flat sheet of polyethylene. All this surface area also degrades at a higher rate. Synthetic turf is on land and exposed to air directly and therefore responsible for a greater amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.”

“Overall, this means that the degradation and breakdown of plastic represent a previously unrecognized source of greenhouse gases that are expected to increase—especially as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment.”

“Now apply this information to synthetic turf: synthetic turf is made out of the very material, PE, that produces the most GHGs. Synthetic turf is exposed to air directly which creates even more GHGs. And worse still, synthetic turf has a huge surface area –much larger than the size of the field– because of all the small plastic !blades” in this large carpet of fake grass.”

“I hope the facts presented are enough to convince you that choosing synthetic turf is choosing to increase GHG emissions, just as we are working so hard to reverse that. I am asking you to help make sure that used synthetic turf doesn’t go on releasing greenhouse gases, by prohibiting the use of synthetic turf in playgrounds and athletic field surfaces in Glastonbury. “

If folks would like to reach her, they can do so  at: email: sroyer@ucsd.edu

http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/sarah-jeanne-royer/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Jeanne_Royer2?ev=hdr_xprf http://www.sarahjeanneroyer.com

The TALK Environment Team seeks to promote conversations about the environment and climate change in our community. We encourage community writings for this column. If you have a related topic which you are passionate about, please send your ideas and suggestions for future articles to: prez@talk-action.org. All articles are archived on the TALK website https://talk-action.org.