Artificial turf was sold as a low-maintenance dream for dry climate cities like Los Angeles, Dubai, and Tel Aviv: no mowing, no mud, no watering. But for many homeowners, it is starting to look more like a plastic trap. It is leaking microplastics which are a health and eco-hazard. Biohacker Bryan Johnson spoke about the need to get rid of his astroturf for health reasons, but how?

Synthetic grass can get dangerously hot in the sun, cause skin burns, trap chemical dust, and shed microplastics into your soil and drains and these also end up in our air and bodies. Many products also contain crumb rubber infill made from recycled tires, along with plastic fibers and backing materials that do not belong in a healthy backyard.

For families with kids, pets, or anyone trying to build a cleaner outdoor space, removing old astroturf is one of the simplest ways to reduce unnecessary exposure to plastics and heat. Some past studies suggest that if kids have played on these surfaces you need to wash their hands.

The good news is that you do not need to turn your yard into a construction zone, as getting rid of artificial turf is a sooner the better idea. You just need to remove it carefully, contain the mess, and dispose of it responsibly.

5 simple tips to safely remove astroturf from your yard

1. Pick a cool, dry day

Do not remove turf in extreme heat or on a windy day. Hot turf releases more dust and becomes harder to handle. Wind can spread loose fibers and crumb rubber around your yard and into drains.

2. Wear gloves, shoes, and a mask

Old turf can contain dust, rubber particles, sharp staples, sand, and degraded plastic fibers. Wear: work gloves, closed shoes or boots, long sleeves and wear an N95 or dust mask if the turf is old or crumbly. Keep the kids and pets away while you work.

3. Roll it up slowly, don’t rip it apart

Cut the turf into manageable strips with a sharp utility knife if it’s large. Roll each strip carefully instead of dragging it across the yard. This helps stop plastic fibers, infill, and backing crumbs from spreading into your soil. If there is black crumb rubber or sand infill, use a shovel and broom to gather it first before rolling.

4. Bag the loose plastic and vacuum the area if the turf is on a hard surface. If it’s on sand or earth sweep or rake visible plastic bits and use a shop vacuum for small fibers and rubber crumbs. Better to collect some sand with the plastic bits using a shop vac. Collect debris into heavy-duty contractor bags

Do not hose the area down aggressively. That can push microplastics deeper into soil or into storm drains or into your backyard to keep emerging years later. Wait for a week or too. Natural air flow should gather some of the plastic fragments at corners for you to sweep away and contain.

5. Don’t burn it or dump it illegally

It’s not asbestos so you don’t need to bring it to a biohazard site. A local dump will do, or ask your city what to do and how to mark it if they do collection. Never burn artificial turf. It can release toxic, plastic fumes. And do not cut it into tiny pieces and throw it loosely into regular trash if you can avoid it.

Instead:

Ask your municipal waste center if they accept artificial turf. Check for construction and demolition waste disposal sites near you. Ask local landscaping or junk-haul companies if they handle turf removal. If the turf is newer, ask the installer or manufacturer if they have a take-back or recycling option for what you’ve pulled up.

Some places treat artificial turf as bulky plastic or construction waste, not regular yard waste.

How to reduce microplastics left behind from astroturf 

You probably will not remove every last plastic fiber, but you can reduce what remains. Try this simple cleanup plan:

• Hand-rake gently to collect visible fragments
• Shop-vac hard surfaces like patios, pavers, and edges
• Remove the top layer of contaminated infill or dust if there’s a heavy buildup
• Add fresh compost and mulch to help cover and stabilize remaining particles
• Replant with groundcovers, native plants, clover, gravel, or permeable stone

If the turf sat there for years, replacing the top few centimeters of soil in high-use areas may also help, especially where children played barefoot.

What should replace astroturf?

The best replacement depends on your climate, but healthier choices include:

• native drought-tolerant plants
• clover or low-water living groundcovers
• mulch play areas
• permeable pavers
• gravel with shade trees
• tiled or shaded courtyard spaces

The smartest yard is not the greenest-looking one. It is the one that stays cooler, drains properly, and supports life instead of shedding plastic.

The post How to safely remove astroturf and plastics from your backyard appeared first on Green Prophet.

Everything counts in large amounts: July 13, near a beach in Turkey. Campers and locals creating a dump they will later burn. This eco alert hopes to stop widespread illegal dumping of consumer trash.

There is nothing more annoying than getting out of the town or city and going to nature for a stroll or swim and then coming upon a pile of garbage. Or nothing more annoying than thinking you are going to paradise and then end up in a dump. Unlike pollution such as microplastics that can’t be seen, or industrial pollution causing high rates of suspected cancer cases, when you see garbage in plain sight being contributed to by everyday people, you know there is a big problem with local awareness.

This Eco Alert come from Sandra Brinuma, who went for a swim at the beach in Keşan, Edirne, Turkey. “The place on internet was called as ‘hidden paradise’. It was hidden plastic hell,” she reports.

The bay where she found the piles of trash is called İtalyan Koyu or Kale Koyu and it is close to Mecidiye and Erikli villages. “A sand road goes there from the main road,” she tells Green Prophet, and to find it on the GPS you punch in: 40°35’47.2″N 26°30’40.4″E.

The last time we went to Turkey the nature was pristine and clean. But this is changing with the growing use of plastics and our throwaway culture. This is what we want to see. Not the pile of garbage above.

She explains: “Across the hill on the other side there is Uzunkum beach which is with the payment fee therefore there was no trash. Where municipality steps in is clean but not official beaches (however crowded ones) are not taken care of at all.

“I wish I have taken more pictures as on the sides of the beach there was a lot of trash too and also trash was swimming in the water.

As it is not an official beach, there are no trash cans and where the cars were parked there was this huge hole in the ground full with trash. When I went there to take a picture, a man with his son was going there to throw more bottles in it.  I  told him that he should not do this, then he said that campers have made this trash here and that municipality burns it later. He did not understand that he is a part of the problem nor that burning is bad,” Brinuma explains.

Her boyfriend Umut Üntürk sent a message to the Keşan Municipality and she is waiting for a reply. “Locals seem to not care,” she says. “They were ok with trash and not to pay entrance fee.”

Consider that Turkey beaches are rated the best in the world for Blue Flag. How can we keep it that way?

Read more about local environmental movements in Turkey:

As He Battles Lawsuit, Grandfather of Turkish Environmental Movement Receives Right Livelihood Award
Istanbul’s Main Square To Become Lifeless And Isolated In New Urban Plan, Opponents Warn
10,000 Turks Gather To Protest Coal-Fired Power Plant
“Anatola Won’t Be Blackened” Declare Turkish Anti-Fossil Fuel Groups

You might think that little reports of environmental neglect go nowhere. We disagree. Have an environmental gripe or violation to report? Email us ecoalert@greenprophet.com

The post Beach called hidden paradise is plastic hell appeared first on Green Prophet.

The UAE is well on its way to rid the country of plastic bags by 2013, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water, said on Saturday 9th January.

“The UAE and the GCC are on the forefront of countries preserving the environment when it comes to producing plastics. The UAE will be free of plastic bags in 2013. The national plastics and petrochemicals companies are adhering to the environmental measures […] to enhance the environment friendly approach of the UAE as part of their corporate social responsibility towards the community. Their adherence to environment measures also enhances their global competitive edge,” he said during the inauguration of ArabPlast and Tekno/Tube Arabia 2011, a trade platform for rubber, plastics and plastic processing in the Middle East.

Organisers of the ArabPlast show revealed that the UAE currently consumes 20 billion bags out of a global figure of 500 billion bags.

The Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) launched a nation-wide the ‘UAE is free from plastic bags’ campaign in October 2009 to reduce non-biodegradable plastic bags in four phases, after a survey conducted by MOEW showed that plastic bags and other plastic material added to 10.9 per cent of the total amount of household waste a year.

The four phases involved education and awareness at the public and academic levels, finding alternatives to plastic bags and setting of legalities by authorities. The final phase involves the actual move to reduce and prevent the manufacture of plastic bags by year 2013.

Plastic bags pose danger to the environment because the petroleum product, polyethylene, present in the material is highly toxic and takes a thousand years to break down.

Alternatives to plastic bags such as jute bags, canvas, paper bags are widely available in the UAE and some supermarkets have already replaced non-biodegradable bags with bags made out of oxo-biodegradable plastic that eventually break down into non-poisonous materials.

The Gulf region dominates the world when it comes to petrochemicals production. The demand outweighs supply and this industry is always linked to the prices of oil. Plastics comprises 40 percent of materials we use in life thus creating a huge demand all over the world. Referring to the World Cup 2022, Dr Al Mulla said that sports industry needs lots of plastics in the establishment of sports cities.

:: Khaleej Times

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