Ive heard UCSB is putting in artificial turf on campus! Whats wrong with regular grass?
Artificial turf is a synthetic surface which resembles grass. It requires less maintenance than natural turf, which lowers labor costs, and does not require watering or fertilization. It has been installed in some areas around campus, including Rob Field near UCSBs Recreation Center. This field is made up of synthetic material infilled with rubber particles that allow water to escape through to a drainage system below. There are a few possible applications of artificial turf outside use on sports fields. Regular grass is incredibly resource and labor intensive to maintain. Grass is very hard to maintain, especially without expensive and dangerous chemicals, which UCSB tries to minimize. Weekly mowing and trimming puts pollution (and noiseremember those mornings?) into the air. Even with all this work, high traffic lawns still take a beating during winter rains and can sustain long-lasting damage. Artificial turf isnt perfect either, but its almost maintenance free, made from recyclable
