Sustainability Plus
ASC is committed to recycling and reusing synthetic surfaces. Our “cradle-to-cradle” approach dramatically reduces the material that has to go into a landfill. Our surfaces also generate substantial savings on water usage compared to natural grass. Environmental sustainability is a priority for us. The high-quality synthetic surfaces we install can help in these important ways:
Water conservation
Depending on the region, a typical grass sports field in the United States requires between 500,000 to 1 million gallons of water or more each year. During 2010, between 3 billion to 8 billion gallons of water were conserved through the use of synthetic turf. This is becoming even more critical with an increase in droughts and new regulations around water usage.
Saves time and labor
Synthetic turf does not need to be watered, fertilized or mowed. Synthetic turf can also help reduce noxious emissions from mowing and other maintenance. The EPA estimates gas-powered lawnmowers account for 5% of the air pollution in the United States. Unlike grass fields, synthetic surfaces do not need to be resodded.
Less pesticide and fertilizer use
Synthetic turf eliminates the need for nearly a billion pounds of pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides and herbicides that are used to care for grass.
Recycling
ASC only installs surfaces that can be recycled. Our goal is to work with companies to achieve true “cradle-to-cradle” recycling and e a part of a positive change in the industry to recycle end-of-life fields into new surfaces or other valuable products.
Among the many other advantages of synthetic fields compared to natural grass:
- They can be used for more hours per day in almost any type of weather year-round with no field recovery time needed.
- They can be rented out for a variety of purposes, generating a revenue stream to offset their cost.
Recycle. Don't down-cycle
There is a big difference between recycling and down-cycling. At the end of the day, unless a product could be reused repeatedly without losing its original quality and performance, it does not meet our standards. Some products claim that they are diverting materials from a landfill, but a closer look exposes they are simply delaying this inevitable and wasteful outcome. When it comes time to replace these materials, it’s not financially viable to further down-cycle them, so their destiny is thrown away.
ASC is committed to actually recycling materials when synthetic turf reaches its end-of-life. This is the best long-term solution to protect our natural resources.