A Budding Environmental Possibility in Artificial Grass

Saving water and helping keep a clean environment while at the same time saving money is possible for homeowners. This is possible by converting the home’s lawn to synthetic grass. The three-month water bill of a couple from Walnut Creek, California, has been reduced to $150 from $600 when they used synthetic material in their 2,000 square-foot lawn, replacing the natural grass landscaping. The switch has also helped reduce pollution as a lawn mower will no longer be needed. This would also allow free time for either chores or leisure such as watching baseball where synthetic material was first used as playing field. So now that you’ve heard that don’t you want to hear more about synthetic grass lawn.

The forerunner of synthetic grass is the AstroTurf used in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, when the arena was built in 1965. The use of AstroTurf and other similar materials became widespread in both outdoor and indoor sports venues in the US and Canada in the 1970s. Managers of indoor sports arenas, in particular, welcomed synthetic grass because it reduced maintenance cost. Soon, artificial grass were also adopted as playing surfaces for tennis and field hockey as well as for snowless ski and snowboarding. If you want to learn more just search for “artificial synthetic lawn“.

The idea of using synthetic material for commercial and residential landscaping didn’t catch fire until the early 1990s. Las Vegas was then experiencing drought, which resulted in the conversion of a golf course to synthetic grass. This caught the attention of one enterprising businessman, Lyle Johnston, who was convinced that the material would be appropriate for landscaping. Johnston formed a company, Envy Turf, for this purpose. The company started operations in 1992 and the trend for synthetic grass as landscaping material was established. The growth of this trend was encouraged by two factors. First, there has been dramatic improvement in the variety and quality of synthetic materials available. Likewise, the benefits on water conservation and easy maintenance of the synthetic grass surfaces have proven to be convincing to both authorities and homeowners alike. There are lots of people who wonder a lot of stuff about it, like I have friends ask about synthetic grass v natural grass all the time.

Still, there are some drawbacks to having a lawn made of synthetic materials. First would be the initial cost of converting from the natural grass to the synthetic material. Among other things, there would be labor costs to have the old lawn removed. This will be followed by laying out a base of rock then rubber for sinkhole prevention. It is only after these steps that the synthetic grass could be installed.

Another problem is that some synthetic grass needs infill like silicon sand and/or granulated rubber recycled from old car tires. There could be heavy metal content in these infills which, if leached underground, could cause water table contamination. Installing artificial grass for a lawn could also warm up home surroundings, possibly affecting ornamental plants in a garden. This is because exposure to sunlight makes synthetic grass much hotter than natural grass.

Posted by wayne on April 14th, 2009 filed in Lawn Care |

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