Increasing 3G pitches causing environmental worries

Wednesday 17 August 2022

As the number of new 3G pitches in Jersey grows, some islanders have expressed concerns about the negative environmental impact of replacing natural grass pitches with fake ones.

Real grass pitches have lots of benefits for the environment, including absorbing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, cooling the air, and creating a home for wildlife especially insects, which 3G pitches do not provide.

Although they are great for ensuring that athletes can play sports all year round, 'third generation' (3G) artificial grass pitches come with a host of environmental concerns including the use of microplastics, flooding risks, the inability to recycle them, negative impact on biodiversity and increased temperatures.

3G pitches are made of a rubber crumb infill which is composed largely of recycled tyres. However, this infill material is easily dislodged from the pitches onto the skin, clothing and shoes of sports players. Additional rubber is also blown or washed off pitches by poor weather and these ragments of rubber infill then find its way into sewers, resulting in an increased number of microplastics in our oceans.

Waste management is also a huge problem for this industry, with artificial grass pitches lasting just under ten years. The cost of landfilling artificial grass is high and there are no verified recycling options available in the UK at present. More recently, many of the materials used in the pitches are recycled but these still need to eventually be disposed of when the pitch comes to the end of its life.

Pictured: The fibre loss of microplastics is just one of the environmental concerns around 3G pitches.

Piers Sangan, Director and Ecologist at Sangan Island Conservation, explained: "Artificial grass has very different thermal responses compared to the natural tuff substrates with some studies showing they can be 22-48 degrees Celsius hotter than the surrounding natural turf. 

"The island is currently aiming for net zero along with increasing the carbon sequestration potential of the island. However artificial pitches remove areas of grass which will absorb carbon and replace it with recycled plastics that degrade and leach into the soil and release gasses into the air."

In Jersey, there are currently nine schools with 3G sports pitches. There are large pitches at Haute Vallee, Springfield and Oakfield, while Le Quennevais has a medium-sized pitch. Smaller 3G pitches can be found at La Moye, Plat Douet, Janvrin, Grouville and St Clement.

A planning application for a new 3G pitch at St. Lawrence Primary School was also lodged earlier this month and is currently awaiting approval.

Pictured: A new 3G pitch was recently opened at La Moye school as the previous field was unusable for most of the year because it was sandy in the summer and muddy in the winter. 

Mr Sangan added: "From an environmental point of view, artificial grass is not good and in the UK, petitions have been launched to ban the products. The Chelsea flower show banned artificial grass this year due to the increasingly negative effects of the products.

"Natural turf areas provide numerous environmental benefits including carbon sequestration, providing habitat for wildlife, producing oxygen and absorbing and storing water. In comparison, artificial grass can contaminate the soil with chemicals, microplastics, and minerals, impact the health of subterrestrial organisms such as earthworms and increase flooding risks due to the loss of absorbent surfaces."

In the UK, the Sports and Play Construction Association (SAPCA), the national trade body for the sports pitch industry, has agreed and implemented a mandatory standard for their members that provides the same restrictions on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon chemicals as that proposed for European regulation.

Sport England issued a statement which said: "The four national governments of the UK and their agencies are working with leading sports and industry bodies to provide greater reassurance to communities that artificial grass pitches in this country are both safe for the environment and for people to play on."