Does installing synthetic grass have ecological consequences?
Everyone is concerned about the environment and we are all trying to do everything in our powers to minimise the adverse effect we have on the planet. We all think of grass in the wild as a positive contributor to the environment. But when you look at the very unnatural things we humans do with our lawns, what is the real environmental impact of that patch of green? Traditional grass does of course absorb some greenhouse gases, like any living plant, but far less than the trees that make up so much of our landscape – and even less when it is mown down to an inch long! What about the electricity – or even petrol – that goes into that weekly mowing… the chemicals that nearly all of us put on to kill pests and weeds… the fuel used by council garden waste collections (around 80% of which is grass) and of course the ever-more precious commodity of mains water we hose it with regularly. Just compare that with artificial grass. Once it’s manufactured and installed, you have an estimate 15
