Are your products made from RECYCLED plastic, or using yet more virgin plastic?? I'm confused because they seem to be made out of brand new plastic yet say "100% environmentally friendly". If so, those facts are contradictory/misleading. I'm sincerely interested in this product, but using NEW plastic is a huge issue right now since the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation and the byproducts new plastics create are devastating and irreversible. I did some research and noticed y'all brought up that these products are "100% sustainable" because they do not require water (like normal grass and ivy) sure, but that is very misleading and yes, GREENSWASHING. The byproducts created in using new plastics is NOT ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY, why not use recycled plastic? There is a lot it available. Please considering not stating these products are "100% environmentally friendly" since they aren't or consider using 100% recycled plastic. Thank you for putting people over your profits and not contributing to misinformation.
 | Jul 29, 2020 8:08 AM |
Great question! This response will contain a lot of information, so let’s break it down into two sections, starting with the “clean” factor regarding different types of plastics. Hypothetically, let’s assume that the product was made of 100% recycled materials. Depending on how the materials are re-processed, post-consumer is usually the least “clean” when compared to virgin or actual plastic because of the variability of the feedstock. Even with blending, which adds overall strength, neither post-consumer nor post-industrial recycled materials can ever achieve 100% of mechanical properties of virgin materials. The degradation of these properties has a direct effect on safety factors and long term performance measures such as fatigue. This is not to say recycled plastics cannot be used in various applications, but does explain why recycled materials often have lower safety ratings. In other words, theoretically, you could have a 100% recycled material product. However, this product would never pass safety tests due to how weak the material would be. At GST, while we do care about the environment, safety is ALWAYS a top priority, as can be seen on our lead and UV testing results.
Our goal with artificial grass products is to provide a healthy balance of being environmentally aware while also remaining within the general safety guidelines. This topic is definitely not black and white and I can assure you we are not the only industry struggling with this issue. For example, manufacturers have made a lot of progress using recycled materials for things like plastic bags and disposable packaging but are still figuring out the most effective way to use it for larger structural and infrastructure items. Turf is without a doubt, a larger item so it is much harder to make it out of 100% recycled material. Often, if the product is structural, it may have to have a lower safety or strength rating if recycled materials are being used, but as stated earlier, we value the customer’s safety more than anything.
Regarding sustainability, there is a common misconception that just because something is recycled, it must be more sustainable. This is true some of the time, but not always. For example, though small, there are ecological impacts from the energy used to drive around to pick the post-consumer materials, from the actual re-processing (cleaning and grinding), and from added resin weight that is necessary to reach the same mechanical properties. Sustainability is more than just whether or not a product is fully recyclable. What if the product is made overseas and needs to be shipped to the US? Different variables put together decide whether or not a product is sustainable.
When we state that our products are “environmentally friendly” we mean relative, compared to other turf products and actual lawns. In no way are we claiming that our products are going to end global warming or any macro environmental issues since that would be a silly claim. We always refer to real grass lawn when promoting artificial grass and claim of “environmentally friendly” is also a direct comparison with real grass. Real lawn needs water, fertilizer, and lawn mower in order to be maintained. Needless to say, water is a precious resource on our planet and we should try our best to conserve it. The environmental harm from fertilizers heavily outweighs the benefits to an individual's yard, since the resulting synthetic chemicals runoff into nearby waterways. When the excess nutrients from all the fertilizer runs off into our waterways, they cause algae blooms sometimes big enough to make waterways impassable. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and decompose in a process that removes oxygen from the water. Fish and other aquatic species can’t survive in these so-called “dead zones” and so they die or move on to greener underwater pastures. In other words, fertilizer destroys our natural landscapes such as lakes and ponds. People use lawn mowers to cut their grass. Since it’s a relatively small machine, you might not think that it produces a lot of pollution, but in fact it has been proven that a lawn mower produces 11 times more pollution than a new car. Each year 13 billion pounds of pollution are from lawn mowers. As you can see, a regular lawn is definitely NOT environmentally friendly. We go off of these facts when we claim that our products are “environmentally friendly”. Hopefully this provides you with a deeper understanding of the materials we use and the claims we make for our products. Please always feel free to contact with any further questions by phone, email or this online form, we really appreciate your thoughts: https://www.globalsynturf.com/free-quote