Brendan I. Koerner - brought to you by grassestimate.com Bay Area fake
artificial grass and synthetic golf putting green leader
I fear that my well-tended lawn is wreaking havoc on the environment.
I've considered replacing it with synthetic grass, which requires far
less maintenance. But manufacturing that plastic vegetation must give
off a lot of carbon emissions, right? So which type of lawn is
(figuratively) greener—real or fake?
It's tough to declare a winner here without knowing the specifics of
your lawn-care regimen, as well as your geographic location. If you're
reckless with the fertilizer, oblivious to the consequences of
heedless mowing, and live in a drought-stricken region, then ersatz
grass has the clear environmental edge. But if you're diligent about
your gardening routine, the real stuff may be better.
The environmental drawbacks of genuine lawns are easy enough to tally.
They're thirsty, of course—the average American lawn gulps down 21,600
gallons of water per year. Lawns planted atop sandy soil can be
particularly wasteful since they drain more quickly. And the water
usage problem is particularly acute when a homeowner insists on laying
sod that's ill-suited to the local climate.
Gas-powered mowers, meanwhile, are hazardous to more than just
eardrums. A 2001 study by Sweden's Stockholm University found that an
hour's worth of mowing resulted in the same amount of smog-forming
emissions as driving a car 93 miles. Mower manufacturers contend that
their newer models have become cleaner, yet they still resist calls to
add catalytic converters to their products; according to the Swedes,
doing so would reduce mower emissions by 80 percent.
Another knock against real grass is that it's frequently drizzled with
fertilizer, most of which is synthetic. American homeowners use about
3 million metric tons of synthetic lawn fertilizer per year. The
fossil fuel equivalent of a barrel of oil goes into manufacturing 560
pounds of such fertilizer, so our collective lawn habit is costing us
more than 11.8 million barrels of oil annually. We also use 70 million
pounds of pesticides and herbicides on our lawns every year. Clippings
that are improperly disposed of can end up polluting major waterways.
On the plus side, lawns do act as carbon sinks. According to a 2005
NASA study, the United States is covered with roughly 40 million acres
of tended lawns. Assuming all clippings are bagged and tossed in the
trash, those lawns can soak up about 13.2 million pounds of carbon
dioxide per year. But the study's authors stressed that the lawns'
carbon absorption is likely negated by the amount of energy that goes
into making synthetic fertilizer and powering mowers.
While it's not entirely maintenance-free, synthetic grass requires
neither water nor fertilizer nor mowing. Its greatest environmental
sin occurs during manufacturing, since the production of polyethylene
and other essential fake-grass materials (such as polymers and
elastomeric coatings) is energy intensive. One must also consider the
inevitable disposal issues—like most plastics, aside from those found
in beverage and detergent bottles, artificial turf is typically
landfilled rather than recycled.
So how bad is fake grass? The best life-cycle study the Lantern could
find is this one (PDF), in which Canada's Athena Institute tried to
calculate the carbon toll of converting a school's playing field from
real grass to artificial. The new field could be made carbon neutral,
the study's authors concluded, by planting and maintaining 1,861 trees
for a decade. But keep in mind that this was an athletic pitch
measuring 96,840 square feet, not a piddling single-family lawn. And
Athena's calculations had to take into account the installation of PVC
pipes for drainage, something that may not affect the average
homeowner.
There are also many environmental activists who revile fake grass that
uses rubber infill—that is, crumbs of recycled tires sprinkled between
the blades, in order to provide cushioning. They claim that these
rubber bits can cause health problems if inhaled; the artificial-turf
industry counters that such fears are scientifically unwarranted. The
Lantern will note only that the infill issue seems to affect athletic
fields more than ornamental lawns and that there are artificial
options that don't include rubber crumbs.
The bottom line is that, whichever lawn type you choose, you should
commit to managing it responsibly. If you want to minimize your water
and fertilizer use by going the fake route, make sure you purchase a
quality product that won't have to be replaced for a decade or more.
But if you don't feel comfortable with plastic, think about
drastically altering your lawn-care practices. For starters, compost
your clippings instead of bagging them; per the NASA study, this can
nearly triple your lawn's effectiveness as a carbon sink. Ditch your
aging gas-powered mower in favor of a reel push mower. And make the
switch to organic fertilizers that contain ingredients like cornmeal
or seaweed.