www.SynTurf.org

No. 16 Cambridge, Mass.: A private school opts for coconut shell and cork infill (September 2008).

No. 15 Wayland, Mass.: The Super Enviro-grass! (September 2008).

No. 14 Want to ensure prompt installation of turf? Penalize the contractor $1,500 per day of delay (August 2008).

No. 13  Stow, Ohio: Product defect delays turf installation (July 2008).

No. 12  What is a synthetically-enhanced natural grass playing field? (May 2008).

No. 11  Turf manufacturer hires lobbyist to bury NYC turf bill (April 2008).

No. 10  Turf installations increase 20% annually (April 2008).

No. 09  Qwest Field replaces turf field after just six years (February 2008).

No. 01  The Royal Run-around: Who will fix the fields? What the industry does not want you to know.

No. 02  Dangers of silica (Warning Label).

No. 03  Disinfecting the fields, November 13, 2007 (Updated Jan. 11, 2008).

No. 04  What does a turf patent application contain?

No. 05  A manufacturer’s letter.

No. 06  Warranty talk.

No. 07  "Aliapur Study" Disrobed! 

No. 08  Methane: Dealing with effusions of an old landfill. 

 

[No. 23] NYC and LA: Alternative to rubber infill taking hold. According to a report in The Queens Courier (June 24, 2009), “The newly-embraced artificial turf material, which relies on sand instead of crumb rubber to pad the synthetic grass so common in the city’s sports fields, is making its New York debut. Weeks after The Queens Courier reported on increased local opposition to the old crumb rubber infill that typically composes artificial sports surfaces, the city parks department has installed the new surface at two locations: Manhattan’s Thomas Jefferson Park in Harlem, and Queens’ Highland Park off Jamaica Avenue.” “The FlexSand, according to a statement by its producer, ‘combines the shock absorption of traditional infill and the ballast of raw sand, while minimizing health and environmental concerns.’ The material combines two engineered elastic polymers with high-purity quartz sand. It is produced by a subsidiary of Ohio-based Fairmount Minerals.” “In recent weeks, the City of Los Angeles, too, has shifted its focus from FieldTurf to FlexSand. Having issued a similar quarantine, it just completed FlexSand installations at two of its parks. Justified or not, a synthetic switch appears to be taking form.” “Earlier this month, an outdated but newly-revealed internal memorandum from the federal Environmental Protection Agency stated that “there are valid reasons to take a broader perspective of all potential risks associated with crumb rubber.” Source: Alex Fumeli, “Toxic or not, turf surface losing ground in NYC,” in The Queens Courier, June 24, 2009, available at http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2009/06/24/sports/top_stories/doc4a426c406b1ec279273793.txt .

[No. 22] Katy, Texas: What in the world is “fertigation?” Fertigation is a combined irrigation and fertilizing process that can use organic, non-chemical fertilizer on natural turf and has been in use on golf courses, parks and sports fields. We came across a description of this “technology” in a story about how, in one expert’s opinion, the Katy Independent School District ignored this much less expensive option when deciding to spend $5 million for artificial turf on football fields at the district’s six high schools. The expert is Katy resident Michael Chaplinsky of Turf Feeding Systems; he conducted a pilot program two years ago at Cinco Ranch High School using his company’s “fertigation” system. “Our fertigation system is proven technology; it’s used on top-rated golf courses and (athletic) fields throughout the area.” Chaplinsky said the system measures out an appropriate amount of irrigation water mixed with organic fertilizer. The system is ideal for overused, heat-stressed turf like Cinco Ranch’s football fields, he explained. “We can grow grass faster than any other way in the world, and we proved it at Cinco Ranch (High School),” Chaplinsky said. “After a couple of months of the pilot program, the school had the best fields ever.” “Everybody wants something new and expensive and these bubba coaches have no fiduciary responsibility; they have no concern with saving dollars for taxpayers,” he said. Chaplinsky said the cost of a fertigation system would run about $4,000 per field, with fertilization costs of about $100 per acre per month. He estimated the total annual cost to the district at about $24,000 per year. “That’s a fraction compared to the $5 million the district is about to spend on artificial turf. Katy ISD could easily have the best fields in the world, comparable to what the pros play on,” Chaplinsky said. “The decision to go with artificial turf makes no sense.” Source: “Expert Says Katy ISD Ignored Cheaper Alternative To Artificial Turf,” on InstantnewsKaty.com, May 5, 2009, available at http://instantnewskaty.com/2009/05/05/4736 .

[No. 21] The big bucks in laundering used tires. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. April 26, 2009. This article is based entirely on Cody Love, “State, county officials order cleanup of tire piles,” on Roanoke.com, April 19, 2009, available at http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/201638 and Matt Chittum, “2 million scrap tires erased from Roanoke region,” on Roanoke.com, April 19, 2009, available at http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/201630 . The portions in quotations mark are direct quotes from the source.

Under the Virginia Waste Tire Program some 1,200 piles of scrap tires are slated to be erased from the landscape. That constitutes “25 million tires that can breed mosquitoes, catch fire and boil into gallons of hazardous waste,” According to Roanoke.com (Chittum). There are three years left in the program. The Virginia Waste Tire Program applies to tire piles that date to before 1993, when the state’s recycling program began. New tire piles are illegal. Any failure to comply with removing the pile could result in felony charges, a fine of $100,000 and civil penalties as high as $32,500 a day. But, usually, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality negotiates a consent order with operators/owners of illegal tire piles, with the view of getting the tires removed.

Meet Brian Perkins, he has an illegal tire pile, consisting of some 5,000 tires. The DEQ wants him to close shop and get rid of the pile. Perkins has been meaning to “to shred the thousands of tires and sell them for recycling,” according to a news story in Roanoke.com (Cody). He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars into setting up his tire recycling business. The property in question is limited for use for “truck repair and storage” Perkins argued that the tires were like parts of truck and therefore could be stored on the site, as long as the piles are under certain quantity and at a specific distance to a fire hydrant. “[The Roanoke] County officials disagreed, noting that their zoning ordinance, as well as state law, treats tires in a special category with separate, more stringent regulation than other auto or truck parts.” Perkins blames the County for not “let[ing] me shred tires and turn them into a product I can sell,” do venture into a “green business” about  “re-using a product that is notoriously difficult to recycle,” according to Roanoke.com (Cody).

The DEQ is working to get Perkins in compliance, and to “to figure out how best to get [the tire pile] it removed and processed,” according to Roanoke.com (Cody).

Recently, Virginia Waste Tire Program hit a milestone in Roanoke County, with 2 million tires have been erased from the County’s tire piles. “All 185 known piles containing a total of 2 million tires in the Roanoke region have been cleaned up, either by the state or landowners,” reported Roanoke.com (Chittum).

The genesis of Virginia Waste Tire Program goes back to a series of fires. In 1983 a pile of 9 million tires in Winchester caught fire; firefighters poured millions of gallons of water on it, which produced millions of gallons of hazardous waste runoff and created an environmental hazard that took 17 years to clean up, according to Roanoke.com (Chittum). That fire was “the catalyst of tire recycling in America.” Virginia's program got started in 1993 after identifying some 750 tire piles in the state. But it was not until  2002, when a teenager set month-long fire to a pile of 3 million tires, that the program in Roanoke County got with the program.

One way in which the growth of tire piles is kept in check, nationwide, is at the point of sale of new tires: when you buy a new tire, your old tire is supposed to be destined for the recycling plant – and you the consumer pay a recycling fee as part of the transaction.

What becomes of used tires. Most are “recycled” as fuel to be burned with coal in cogeneration plants. It is the cheapest form of “recycling.” The tires are cheaper than coal, and have a higher BTU rating.  Some landfills use scrap tire for a drainage layer below the trash, and mix it with soil and fly ash to use as cover. Tires also wind up as mulch or rubber mats on playgrounds, and as those black rubber crumbs in artificial turf athletic fields. And a few states recycle scrap tires into asphalt -- Florida, Texas and Arizona.

SynTurf.org Note:  If the public pays for the recycling of used tires at the point of purchase of new ones, then why is the public paying again for the crumb rubber that comes with artificial turf fields, synthetic playing area and rubber mulch? Because the tire recyclers bear the overhead cost processing of the used tires into crumb rubber, mulch and other items? It is not unheard of to invest $ millions to establish such “recycling” or “reprocessing” facilities. Therefore, the manufacturers and dealers of crumb rubber are entitled to recoup their cost and make a profit.

But, here is the rub: if used tires in the previous life were so reviled that governments have been pushing them out of their hazardous or special waste landfills and collection centers, then by what logic are the same items rendered safe and laundered into our playgrounds and playing fields as crumb rubber and rubber mulch? The contradiction offered by this inquiry alone prompted the Swedish Government to recommend that crumb rubber not be used in artificial turf installations. See www.SynTurf.org/wrapuparticles (Item No. 6). To cap it – when little Jane comes home with a footwear-full of crumb rubber and throws the rubber pellets in the trash can, she becomes unknowingly a participant in polluting the environment as the rubber now is removed at curbside and destined for the landfills, while in their wholesome shape they would have been handled as special or hazardous waste material.

[No. 20] Warranty Talk. The following are excerpts from an 8-year warranty provided by A-Turf, a New York provide of artificial turf fields. The full text of the warranty document is available at http://www.aturf.com/index.php/warranty/8_year_warranty or click here.

The section entitled “limitations and exclusions” states, “This Warranty does not apply to any defect, failure, damage, or excessive wear caused by: (a) abuse or deliberate acts of vandalism; (b) accidents or acts of God; (c) static or dynamic loads exceeding A-Turf, Inc.’s recommendations; (d) use of improper cleaning or maintenance methods; (e) footwear having metal cleats, spikes, or similar projections other than conventional football, soccer or baseball shoes having cleats of not more than ½” in length, and other conventional running track shoes having spikes of not more than ¼”in length, or (e) owner negligence in failing to maintain the Surface in accordance with all appropriate documentation. Further, this Warranty is void and of no effect if the Owner has repaired or altered the surface without A-Turf, Inc.’s prior written consent. In no event will A-Turf, Inc. be liable to the Owner for any alleged repair or alteration to the Surface made by the Owner.”

Under the heading “maintenance instructions,” the warranty states, “Owner acknowledges receipt of the Owner’s Manual and agrees to comply with and carry out the instructions contained in the Owner’s Manual as a condition of the Warranty, which terms and conditions are incorporated by reference here. To the extent the Owner fails to comply with and carry out said instructions, A-Turf, Inc. may declare the Warranty to be void.”

The company boasts having the most comprehensive insurance coverage for the warranty on the fields that it installs. Can you spell derivatives! The terms of the 3^rd party insured warranty is available at http://www.aturf.com/index.php/general_info/warranty or click here.

[No. 19] Redding, Conn.: Drainage woes at grass field will be corrected with new technology. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. October 1, 2008. According to a news report in The Redding Pilot (Redding, Connecticut), “Amidst a waiting game on the state’s ruling over the safety of certain artificial turf surfaces, the town has decided to move forward with a method that will immediately improve a field at the community center.” Called “Field 2” on its list of field needing improvement, the town’s Athletic Fields Committee is looking to improve the drainage at Field 2 with a technology called “sand trenching” at the cost of approximately $60,000 for a whole field, as compared to an infill artificial turf installation of costing the town $850,000. “Sand trenching” enhances field drainage by “a series of long, narrow trenches filled with sand, allowing storm water to siphon away through the trenches to an existing storm drain. These trenches are seamless, and covered by grass.” “It’s a fascinating system and has worked well in other towns,” Selectman Don Takacs told the Board of Selectmen at its meeting on September 15. Source: Rachel Kirkpatrick, “Town athletic field to undergo immediate drainage fix,” in The Redding Pilot, September 28, 2008, available at town athletic field to undergo immediate drainage fix http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9740:town-athletic-field-to-undergo-immediate-drainage-fix&catid=37:redding-local&Itemid=101 .

[No. 18] Comparing Infills. SynTurf.org, Newton, Massachusetts. September 28, 2008. Infill travels in a variety of ways – by attaching to humankind, clothing and footwear; by force of play, and by the elements, particularly water (irrigation or precipitation). Currently, there are three types of infill used in the Boston-area artificial turf fields. The most popular is crumb rubber made of used tires (cheapest). A few places are using a product that advertises itself as rubber but not from used tires. The most exotic one so far is an Italian product that claims to be a combination of coconut shell and cork. Recently, SynTurf.org collected samples of each in the Boston area. The pictorial below compares the infills’ look and buoyancy in household tap water. The generic samples of crumb rubber from Waltham’s Memorial Park (whole) and Arlington high School (burnt). The non-used tire rubber infill is from Sprague Elementary School turf fields in Wellesley. The cork-coconut infill is from the International School of Boston, in Cambridge, whose turf field is really a circular playground that is 10 yards in radius. All rubber infills sink. The cork-coconut infill floats, which means that in terms of maintenance, one should expect more of the stuff to move of the playground with rains. On the positive side, one would suspect that the cork-coconut infill would not heat up as much as the crumb rubber infills do in hot summer months. Because cork-coconut infill is soft and pulverized into minute bits, it may well compact and clog the drainage system by compromising the permeability of the underlying mesh or the geotextile, but because it floats one would suspect that a rigorous hydration of the field would alleviate some of the compaction.   

[No. 17] Portland, Oregon: Crumb rubber infill in natural grass backfires. In July 2008, the Portland Bureau of Purchases put out a document called “Green Purchases Case Studies: Old Tires Find New Life in Sports Fields.” The document could not say enough about the benefits of dumping more than 100 tons of crumb rubber from old tires on sports fields, ridding the overburdened landfills by as much as 20,000 to 40,000 used tires for every infilled turf field.

In 2000, some genius in the Portland Parks and Recreation Department got the idea to use crumb rubber as an infill for natural grass fields as well! However, that idea did not turn out to be such a good one. According to the document,

Although successfully used in artificial turf at Strasser and Mary Rieke fields, crumb rubber did not prove as viable when used in a natural turf field at Lents Park in 2000. Unlike the artificial field installations, crumb rubber was tilled into the soil in addition to being used as a top dressing. This required Park Services to keep people off the field for four months to allow new grass to grow, which was difficult to enforce at the popular Lents Park. The crumb rubber itself further impeded grass growth, and Park Services had to use more water, fertilizer, and pest management than usual to protect the little grass that was able to grow. Other natural fields across the country have effectively used crumb rubber solely as a top dressing for natural turf – without tilling it into the soil. Park Services may consider this option for natural fields in the future.

O, Joy! The proliferation of artificial turf fields with the noxious crumb rubber was not enough, now we must brace for landfills emptying their hazardous waste in ever greater quantities onto natural grass playing fields.

Source: City of Portland (Bureau of Purchases), Green Purchases Case Studies: Old Tires Find New Life in Sports Fields, July 2008, available at  http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=157989 or click here.

[No. 16] Cambridge, Mass.: A private school opts for coconut shell and cork infill. According to a news report in Wicked Local – Cambridge (September 19, 2008), the infill of the artificial turf field at the Boston International School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is derived from coconut shell and cork. According to the school, “The parents, board, and administration, through its Green Committee, pushed to find a natural infill material that would provide improved safety, including reduced incidence of burns, heat exhaustion, and injuries, and would comply with an environmental resolution passed by the school’s board. We quickly concluded there was nothing currently being used in the U.S. that would meet that mandate.” So, the school turned to a product in use for some time in Italy. The coconut-and-cork infill is an improvement over the crumb rubber infill, which “is increasingly seen as a health hazard because of the high temperatures that it generates and the potentially hazardous materials it contains, including lead and other carcinogens,” according to The Wicked Local. Source: “A green idea: International School of Boston deploys ‘all-natural’ synthetic turf,” in Wicked Local Cambridge, September 19, 2008, available at 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/sports/x650664383/A-green-idea-International-School-of-Boston-deploys-all-natural-synthetic-turf .

[No. 15] Wayland, Mass.: The Super Enviro-grass! For the longest time, the artificial turf industry has been promoting itself by claiming, among other things, that natural grass is un-environmental because it requires water to water it and requires fertilizers to grow it. Now comes a product that should make the point that if you look hard enough you can find eco-friendly grass that thrives with less water and need next to no fertilizers (organic or not) and requires less mowing. According to news story on WCVB-TV 5 (Boston, Mass), if you are in the market for such a god-sent you need not look farther than Wayland, Mass., home of one Jackson Madnick, the developer of the Pearl Premium grass seed. His handiwork covers the front of the First Parish Church. “It's drought tolerant, requires very little water, it's slow-growing and requires very little upkeep.,” according to WCVB. “It's important to have an ecological lawn. To lessen your health risks, to lessen the runoff of chemical fertilizers to the environment and to save time, money and water,” says Madnick. “We were very excited to hear about this grass that didn't require fertilizers and didn't even require a lot of care, mowing or other types of care. So we decided we wanted to try it,” said a home owner. Source: David Brown, “New Grass Seed Environmentally Friendly:  Lawns require little water, upkeep,” on WCVB – The Boston ABC-affiliated TV Channel 5, News Center, September 1, 2008, text available at http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17360770/detail.html , video at

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/17372418/index.html .

[No. 14 ] Want to ensure prompt installation of turf? Penalize the contractor $1,500 per day of delay. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. August 11, 2008. The word “tip” is said to be an abbreviation for “to insure promptitude.” Whether it is given upfront as an incentive or afterward as a reward, the act of tipping tends to personalize a transaction for services, which itself is supposed to be value based on an agreed upon price. So, assume for a moment, the contractor that is hired at a handsome price to install a turf field lags behind in its delivery date. What is a municipality to do? According to a news story in The Jamestown Sun, the installation of the turf field at Jamestown High School (North Dakota) had to be suspended due to sub-par work of the contractor that was handling the sub-base work. According to the Superintendent Bob Toso “the two companies have about 10 days of work left, so if they can’t come to an agreement and miss the Aug. 15 deadline, one will be responsible for the $1,500 per day penalty to the district for being late.” Source: Katie Ryan, “Green space could miss its deadline,” in The Jamestown Sun, August 5, 2008, available at http://www.jamestownsun.com/articles/index.cfm?id=70276&section=news&freebie_check&CFID=65178352&CFTOKEN=21303444&jsessionid=88306da08faa45555368 .

[No. 13] Stow, Ohio: Product defect delays turf installation. According to a news story in The Aurora Advocate (Stow, Ohio), when they unrolled the turf at Aurora High School’s Veteran Stadium, the installers noticed that “the grass hairs were 2 inches higher on 20 percent of the roll, and some of them were looped and attached back to the base." Source: Brent Hovey, “Turf flaws delay work at stadium; Won’t affect grid game, cost,” in The Aurora Advocate, July 30, 2008, available at http://www.auroraadvocate.com/news/article/4154131 .  

Note: UEFA stands for Union of European Football [Soccer] Associations. It represents Europe’s national soccer associations and runs Europe’s national and club competitions.

[No. 11] Turf manufacturer hires lobbyist to bury NYC turf bill. SynTurf.org, Newton Mass. April 16, 2008. There is a rumour going around that the April 15, 2008, edition of Crain's Insider (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=insider) reported that FieldTurf, which has sold New York City many artificial turf fields, has hired lobbyist Claudia Wagner and public relations firm Widmeyer Communications to help bury a turf bill presently before the City Council. Council members Eric Gioia, D-Queens, and Tish James, D-Brooklyn, say fields made with crumb rubber should be replaced because the product contains harmful substances. For background on the bill that is pending before the New York City Council, see http://www.synturf.org/moratoriums.html (Item Nos. 10 and 11).

This item was revised and updated on April 16, 2008 (PM) due to information in the earlier posting that SynTurf.org could not independently verify.  

According to an item on Athletic Turf News, Applied Market International Ltd. is reporting that worldwide demand for turf is growing at 20% annually. AMI is a turf industry consultant.  

Source: “AMI study says synthetic turf installs growing 20% annually,” in Athletic Turf News, April 11, 2008, available at

http://www.athleticturf.net/athleticturf/Athletic+Turf+News/AMI-study-says-synthetic-turf-installs-growing-by-/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/509627?contextCategoryId=3209.
SynTurf.org notes, by this estimate, the annual dumping of used tire granulates (infill) also increases by around 20% -- from hazardous waste landfills to your playing fields.

[No. 09] Qwest Field’s turf to be replaced after just 6 years. The February 14, 2008, edition of Athletic Turf News reported that Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, will replace its 6-year old new generation infilled artificial turf field with a new one due in part to safety and aesthetics. According to the story, based on a report by the Puget Sound Business Journal, the replacement field is by the same name brand that is currently in place. Source: http://www.athleticturf.net/athleticturf/Athletic+Turf+News/Qwest-field-to-replace-FieldTurf-with-FieldTurf/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/491809.

This article will take an insider's look behind the artificial turf market in the United States and what the manufacturers don't want the public to know.  The industry is just beginning to understand how these new emerging synthetic turf technologies perform and wear over time, but this information is seldom available to the public for fear it might influence purchasing decisions. 

Synthetic turf has once again gained popularity as a premier athletic surface as new technologies mimic the performance of natural grass surfaces.  Driven by massive marketing campaigns, the synthetic turf manufacturers promote these new technologies as superior to natural grass in terms of maintenance, surface performance, installation, quality and longevity.  While these technologies are promising, there are limitations and liabilities to their use.

The increase in public demand has also created delivery problems along the entire synthetic turf distribution system from shortages of materials, manufacturing defects, unqualified installers, lack of quality assurance and performance problems.  Let's look at how artificial turf is manufactured and installed.  This will reveal the source of some of the problems seen in the synthetic turf industry.

The most surprising and revealing aspect of the synthetic turf manufacturing process is that most companies selling synthetic turf don't manufacture anything but marketing brochures.  We have begun calling synthetic turf manufacturers "turf brokers," since it better reflects the structure of the business model that dominates the industry. 

Every synthetic turf installation begins with a call to the local salesperson.  The potential project is aggressively tracked by the synthetic turf brokers until a sale is closed.  Upon executing a contract for installation of a synthetic turf surface, the turf broker's main office is notified and the manufacturing process begins.  The main office prepares a field layout plan indicating the markings, lines, colors and product type which is then sent to one of only a handful of tufting plants in the United States, the majority of which reside in Dalton, GA.  Over 90 percent of the synthetic turf for the North American market is tufted by four or five companies in Dalton.  Tufting is the process of stitching yarn into the primary backing.  Tufting has replaced knitting as the most common method of synthetic turf manufacturing because of the economy and cost of production.  However, tufting is less durable than knitting. 

When the tufting plants receive an order, they obtain the synthetic turf fiber and primary backing from the independent factories which produce these items as finished products for a variety of open uses.  The largest of the turf brokers will negotiate annual volume purchasing agreements or allocations from the fiber and backing manufacturers to ensure seasonal supply and competitive pricing.  To convince the public that the brokers actually manufacture a product, some companies will lease or purchase tufting machines which reside in the large carpet factories next to the competitor's machines.  These tufting machines are primarily maintained and operated by the carpet factories, not by the turf broker.  It is not uncommon to see a synthetic field being manufactured next to a Berber carpet for your living room.  It is also not uncommon to see two or three synthetic turf brand names being tufted next to each other or even on the same machine.  

Once primary tufting factories receive the fiber and primary backing, the carpet is tufted according to the turf broker's specification.  Each field is custom manufactured according to the specific requirements of the owner, depending on what sports are to be played on the surface.  The yard lines and goal lines will be tufted directly into the carpet using a different color fiber.  The tufting process will take about three days for an average field and is completely on demand.  The industry has been so plagued by company foreclosures that many turf brokers are on a cash-only basis with the material suppliers. 

After the fibers have been inserted, the tufted carpet is then sent to the secondary coating facility which applies a polyurethane or acrylic coating to the back of the primary backing to secure the fiber.  Depending on the requirements of the turf broker, perforations are burned or punched into the carpet backing to permit drainage.  Over 85 percent of the secondary coating for synthetic turf in the North American market is performed by one independent company.  No matter what name brand you buy, it probably traveled through this plant for the secondary coating process.  After the secondary coating cures, the carpet panels are packaged and shipped directly to the construction site.  Seldom does the turf broker have a representative inspect or review the carpet before it is shipped. 

The next step in the process is to secure sand and rubber in-fill products.  The turf broker orders sufficient graded sand and SBR rubber from independent quarries and tire recyclers.  The in-fill materials are purchased in bulk and direct shipped to the construction site.  Every aspect of the synthetic turf process is typically out-sourced.  Even the logos in the center of the fields are manufactured by an independent company which ships the finished logo sight unseen by the turf broker directly to the site.

The basic materials for a synthetic turf surface are now on site ready for installation.  The biggest misconception that is perpetuated in the industry is that the individuals who install the synthetic turf are employees of the turf brokers, sometimes called "in-house crews."  We believe that in-house crews of the turf brokers are responsible for less than eight percent of the total synthetic carpet installed on an annual basis.  The vast majority of synthetic turf installers are small companies or contract labor, who may or may not have been certified or trained by the turf broker.  Demand for installers is so high because of the volume of fields being installed that a turf broker will use almost any installation crew that is available and has equipment.  During the peak installation season between May and September, competition for trained crews is fierce and at times ruthless.  In some instances, it appears that installation volume is a more important criterion in selecting installers than quality. 

Installation crews are bounced from job to job by the turf broker and may not even now where they are working the following week.  The carpet installers receive a work order which includes the seaming and layout plan, along with the estimated quantities of in-fill needed to complete the work.  Many times these companies will never receive any of the construction documents or correspondence prepared by the owner, leaving them totally ignorant of the project requirements. 

The materials are typically on site when the installation crews arrive.  Their primary responsibility and focus is to install the synthetic turf and move on to the next project.  Anything that would slow this process down is problematic, such as inspecting the materials that have been delivered to the site or correcting sub-base problems.  Quality assurance or coordination between sub-contractors is sporadic at best.  Remember that it is in the best interest of the turf broker to provide the least amount of documentation possible, which limits contractual responsibilities to the owner.  If a grading plan is not provided, the owner cannot verify whether the grading has been performed correctly. 

We have yet to see a systematic approach by the turf broker to test or inspect materials delivered to the site to ensure they comply with the expected requirements.  Since the carpet panels really can only be inspected at the manufacturing plants or when the carpet is rolled out on site, it is virtually impossible for the installation crew to have a defected carpet panel returned to the tufting plant.  This would delay the project for weeks, so regardless of the quality of finished product that arrives on site, it is typically installed without question. 

Most owners only purchase one or two fields in a decade, and are helplessly uninformed about the process; whereas the turf brokers may install a couple hundred fields a year, so any concerns about quality are quickly dismissed with, "This is the way we have done it in the past, and we are the experts."  This almost total reliance on the turf broker as the judge of quality leaves most owners in an extremely vulnerable position.  In fact, most sales staff will discourage the owner from seeking professional guidance when designing a synthetic turf field.  The common response is, "You don't need to waste your money on consultants, we can do it all for you." It must be understood that the best interests of the turf broker may not be the best interests of the owner.  The objectives are clearly different.

The dramatic increase in the demand for synthetic turf in the past couple of years has challenged the industry's ability to keep pace.  We have recently seen severe shortages of fiber, silica sand and SBR rubber.  The limited pool of quality installation crews has plagued every turf broker resulting in significant schedule delays and construction defects.  Even the tufting plants and secondary coating process have experienced manufacturing problems as new companies rush new products out to market in order to capture the public's growing demand in the new gold rush.  When materials become scarce, poor choices are made in substitution, resulting in an increase of installation failures.  Most of these choices are typically made out of expediency, since there are more fields to be installed than can be done each year.

Understanding the synthetic turf manufacturing process sheds a light on the origin of problems in the turf delivery process.  The complete fragmentation of manufacturing process and lack of quality assurance creates an environment where responsibility is difficult to assign.  When a product fails, is it the fiber, primary backing, secondary coating, in-fill materials or installation quality?  Remember that each of these items is more than likely out-sourced to different companies.  The turf brokers actually rely on the out-sourced company warrantee to remedy defects.  Most synthetic turf warrantee claims take years to resolve as the cause of the defect is determined, and many owners end up just giving up pursuing remedy of defects through the turf broker's general warrantee.   ...End __/
 
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No. 2] Dangers of Silica. Editor’s Headnote: Field Report, August 26, 2007 -- The picture on the left represents the warning panel on a bag of silica sand that was used in connection with poly-grass fibers and a highly flammable adhesive to repair the damages to a synthetic turf field on the campus of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. This and other silica products are used extensively in artificial turf installation and repair. While the “hazards” part of the warning is alarming, please note, as for the “precautions” part of the warning -- our youth who play on artificial turf fields do not wear the same protective gear as the folks who apply the product to the fields. If we are guarding the health of our youth from things like second-hand smoke and fertilizers and pesticides associated with the maintenance of natural grass fields, what possible reason can we have to expose them to the risks posed by silica sand? Here is the contents of the warning panel:

No. 04]  What does a turf patent application contain? [Editor's Note: The beauty of the American patent system is that the inventor gets to reveal its most intimate details and in return the government protects the inventor’s exploitation of his/her invention for a specific period of time. There is much that the general public can learn about artificial turf from studying turf patent documents. Here is an example of a recent patent for U.S. Greentech, Inc.’s artificial turf system (No. 10811737 filed on March 29, 2004, and granted on December 5, 2007] –

Excerpt:  “Silicone dioxide beads 46 are slightly porous and in certain instances it is desirable to coat the outer surfaces thereof with an acrylic sealer 48 as shown in FIG. 12. Other sealers may be used if desired. The coated silicone dioxide particles or beads are also referred to as STF. It may also be desirable to color the silicone beads to enhance the appearance of the artificial turf. Desirable colorants are iron oxide (Fe Oz) for black and chrome (iii) oxide (Cr_z O₃) for green. Other natural colorants are available for other colors or shades. Generally three pounds of colorant are mixed with one gallon of acrylic sealer to form the coating although this ratio is changed to alter the depth of the color as desired. It is noted that satisfactory results have been achieved when using mixtures of silicone dioxide beads mixed with ground rubber or with sand.” To read more of this, go to http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7144609-description.html. Generally, go to the U.S. Patent Office website at www.uspto.gov.

No. 05]  A manufacturer’s letter. [Editors' Note: Here is a letter from Rob Farley (Jupiter, Florida) of Synthetic Turf International, a turf manufacturer, to a publication called Silver Spring Scene. The letter was posted on the publication on Monday, May 14, 2007 under the heading “Clarity on the Turf,” along with the note to readers that “This should clear things up about what you read and heard previously.” (source: http://silverspringscene.com/blog/2007/05/14/clarity-on-the-turf/)] --

Farley: “…I actually sold the county the current turf out of our office here in South Florida. Our company then sent a crew up to Silver Spring to perform the installation.

Just a point of clarification, I never said that the county chose the “cheapest stuff on earth.” It is actually a very high quality surface, but it isn’t meant to withstand the traffic it has had. The current turf is actually a putting green surface, not filled all the way with sand. If we had kept filling it, Silver Spring would have the world’s largest putting green. They had a budget and that particular variety of turf was what made sense for all concerned. I never imagined it would still be here 21 months later. That wasn’t the plan.

“The “black pellets” you refer to in the sample is actually granulated rubber (ground up car tires). Rubber granules are used to darken up the turf and to provide cushion. The NFL (or any football or soccer organization) prefers ALL rubber and NO sand because it provides even MORE cushion, making it a safer playing field. Rubber granules were left out intentionally (by us) in the installation of the current turf because of cigarette concerns. While a cigarette won’t start a fire on a field even filled with rubber, the rubber will slightly melt until the cigarette burns itself out. We felt a sand only installation made more sense at the time.

“As to cleaning, the turf needs to be brushed – regularly. The county has a proposal on their table for us to come brush it and repair any damaged seams, but I am starting to get the feeling that they don’t want it to look good – for obvious reasons. I realize this turf will be gone in September, but I’d like it to be cleaned up for the summer months.

“As I told Evan, the county office has been very good to us (actually the engineers, namely Don Scheureman). I’m sorry I had to “step on their toes” by even sending that sample, but increasingly I’ve seen our products and our business misrepresented by people that don’t do their research or don’t understand what we do. Is the turf dirty? Yes. It needs to be cleaned regularly and brushed. But it isn’t “cheap.” If it was cheap, it never would have survived all it has survived. It was simply an inexpensive, TEMPORARY solution.”

No. 06] Warranty Talk. [Editor's Note: A warranty is a contractual and/or staturoy assurance that a certain product is made of certain quality and will perform to a certain specification or intended use for a designated period of time. There is no standard product life span for artificial turf. Most sources tend to report that the standard industry warranty on artificial turf field is 8 years. All this means is that on the first day of the 9^th year the a manufacturer or installer is no longer responsible for any warrantied repair or replacement parts of labor on the field. The length of the warranty is not necessarily coincidental wit the life-span of the product. This is no different than the situation of an automobile owner whose warranty has expired but the vehicle is still running. The passage of time and use, however, tend to diminish the pile of the polygrass blades, often causing them to break away from the carpet. The compaction of the subsurface rubber matting, the rubber and sand mix, tends to make the turf a much harder ground than in its earlier years. The disappearance of the polygrass blades also results in a greater migration of the crumb rubber granules off the field. The excerpt below is from an article on “Artificial Turf” in Warranty Week (February 10, 2004), available at http://www.warrantyweek.com/archive/ww20040210.html] -- 

Turf Warranties: In some of North America's largest sports stadiums, the grass is always greener, thanks to AstroTurf and its successors. Unlike the sods it replaces, an artificial sports surface comes with an eight-year warranty. But if you're planning to make a claim, bring your lawyer… Artificial Turf Warranties …[According to Darren Gill, marketing manager for FieldTurf…] all FieldTurf installations come with eight-year warranties, which is more or less the industry standard. "But our warranties," he said, "are the only ones backed by a third party insurer [Virginia Surety Company Inc., part of Aon Corp.]." Gill said that means whether FieldTurf thrives or disappears in the future, an insurance company will always be around to honor its warranty claims. In contrast, warranties issued by a small self-insured company would become worthless upon the demise of the manufacturer. So far, all that's come back are minor repair jobs, Gill said. FieldTurf has yet to forward a warranty claim to its insurance carrier, he noted.

This image is from ALIAPUR's masthead. Deceptive or ignorant message?

[No. 07]  The Aliapur [French] Study Disrobed! Newton: SynTurf.org, December 10, 2007. In August 2007 Environment & Human Health, Inc., a Connecticut nonprofit, called attention to the actual and potential risks associated with use of rubber crumb in artificial turf fields. The toxicological findings of by EHHI-funded study were compelling enough to prompt the Attorney General of Connecticut to call for futher studying of risks associated with artificial turf fields (www.ehhi.org). In New York, the legislators introduced a bill seeking a moratorium on the installation of artificial turf fields until further studies on the environmental and health risks posed by synthetic turf fields (see this site at Moratoriums).

Sure enough, the purveyors of artificial turf fields wasted no time to counter the EHHI findings with the results of a “study” that it claimed “debunked” any talk about the harmful effects of the granulates of recycled used tires that cover the artificial turf fields. An arguably self-proclaimed industry leader, FieldTurf, a Canadian company, was quick to tout the “Aliapur Study.” “The results of a long-term study confirms that the rubber granules used in the construction of artificial turf fields pose absolutely no threat to the environment,” stated a press release on behalf of FieldTurf. ”Study Proves Rubber Granules in Artificial Turf Safe for the Environment,” in Prime Newswire, Montreal, August 30, 2007, at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=125895.

Who is Aliapur? The answer may well cast grave doubt on FieldTurf’s claim about crumb rubber posing no threat to the environment and human health. According to Aliapur’s own website: “Aliapur, acteur de référence dans la valorisation des pneus usagés, est une société anonyme dont les membres fondateurs sont Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop Goodyear, Kléber, Michelin et Pirelli, qui se répartissent à parts égales les 262.500 euros du capital. Ce sont également les premiers clients d’Aliapur.” http://www.aliapur.fr/modules/movie/scenes/home/index.php?fuseAction=page&rubric=societe&article=societeSituation.

[No. 08] Methane: Facing  the effusions of an old landfill. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. December 22, 2007. Updated December 28, 2007. Many of the playing fields around the country are built on top of old capped landfills. It makes good sense. There are two issues that concern the designers and engineers who install such playing fields – differential settling and emanation of harmful substances from under the ground. Differential settling almost always is caused by decomposition of the refuse below. The effusion of substances occurs when the cap is compromised, in which case leachates can ooze out of the dump, solids can rise to the surface and gases can escape from breach in the cap.

A recent article by Carol Carder, “From landfill to athletic fields,” in Rocky Mountain Construction, August 13, 2007, Features, page 12, provides an instructive glimpse into the nuts and bolts of building an artificial turf (“waterless”) field atop a landfill. The venue is the old Rooney Landfill in Jefferson County on the western edge of Denver, Colorado. It is an 80-acre site, which is planned to house five full-sized soccer fields, access roads, parking, restrooms, and two smaller athletic fields.

The dump itself was shut down and capped some 25 years earlier. To install artificial turf fields on the site, the construction company forwent excavating, digging and cutting the ground for fear of breaching the cap. It set out to do “everything above existing ground level and not cut into the clay cap."

The study that preceded the project had sought answers to "How deep is the refuse?" and "What are the moisture conditions?" and "What is the methane gas production?" In 2004 a gas control system was installed at the site, with 25 methane extraction wells reaching into the bottom some 80 feet deep. The methane travels up the pipes and burns off as a flare. There is talk about operating a generator with the methane or selling it. “In [a] dry climate, a landfill will release lower concentrations of methane for decades, while in a wetter climate the methane release is faster and more concentrated," according to one engineer.

Before the fields could go on, it was necessary to enhance the cap. A fill of recycled tire shreds in 2-inch to 4-inch chunks was compacted with low permeability clay, and covered by a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL), a manufactured fabric containing bentonite. To that was added a layer of soil and it was graded so rainfall would run off.

To construct the fields, the contractors “knocked down vegetation and the native grass, and brought in 50,000 cubic yards of fill to further level out the field areas. [The contractor] spread the fill anywhere from 0 to 3 feet deep to make the fields flat with a slight 1-percent slope for drainage. The field base above the fill consists of aggregate. Academy Sports Turf of Denver rolled out the artificial turf much like carpet and anchored it to the concrete perimeter curbing for each field. Then laborers in-filled the turf with recycled rubber tire chips or crumbs for softness, much different than earlier abrasive synthetic turfs.”

“Since all landfills settle as refuge decomposes, [one] expect[s] to repair the fields when dips appear…it's a simple matter of cutting back the turf, filling the depression and gluing the turf back in place. Compared to the maintenance costs of watering, fertilizing and mowing natural fields, these periodic repairs should be a small expense item.”

“The methane being emitted by the landfill necessitated numerous restrictions on both the construction and the finished site. ‘No Smoking’ signs will be prominent. [The contractor] monitored methane emissions during construction to safeguard the workers. Even when [one contractor] was only digging as deep as the fill it brought in, the county required methane monitoring in the event methane was leaking from the cap and infiltrating the new piles of fill.”

“Just one spark can set off a fire if methane is present. The safety plan required the construction crews to cut all rebar for the curbing and restroom slabs and metal such as drainage piping off-site. When one of the drainage pipes needed to be trimmed back, the crew had to dig up the 20-foot-long section, take it off-site and cut off 2 feet, then bring it back and reinstall it.”