By Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland
April 21, 2008

In this day and age when everyone wants to use more natural green products, minimize their impact on the environment and reduce their costs, a bit of an irony is developing for people building athletic fields.

The greenest and most cost effective product is actually synthetic turf instead of natural sod.

Synthetic turf requires no water, mowing or fertilizer which helps with water conservation efforts and reduces carbon emissions and phosphorus run off. Although up-front costs for installation are higher for artificial turf, maintenance expenses over the life of the field are significantly lower. There is no need for expensive sprinkler systems or mowing equipment and labor and maintenance costs are drastically lower than with natural sod.

To help school districts, higher education, states, cities, nonprofits and counties replace or start from scratch grass fields or parks and playgrounds, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia has awarded General Sports Venue/AstroTurf USA (“GSV/AstroTurf USA”) the contract for Synthetic Turf, Athletic Surfaces and Related Products. This new contract is offered through the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance (U.S. Communities).

U.S. Communities is a nonprofit instrumentality of government founded in 1999 and comprised of more than 30,000 public agencies across the country. Participating agencies, whose numbers increase by about 400 each month, spend more than $1 billion a year on products and services via contracts and suppliers of U.S. Communities. It costs nothing to join, nor must an agency spend a minimum or maximum number of dollars each year.

GSV/AstroTurf USA is committed to utilizing green components in manufacturing their product whenever possible while maintaining the highest possible quality and durability standards. Traditionally, polyurethane backing systems – the foundation of any synthetic turf system – were made with petroleum-based products.

GSV/AstroTurf has partnered with a supplier that incorporates a soybean-base as a replacement for petroleum-based components in a portion of the polyurethane chemistry. Systems with soybean-based polyurethane backings emit very low VOC levels, a leading contributor to poor indoor air quality, resulting in healthier indoor fields.

Additionally, materials used to cushion the backing are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. To put the impact of this into perspective: a single 10,000 square yard field uses 40,000 discarded plastic bottles.

Finally, a product made from coal flyash, the material produced by coal combustion in electrical utility power plants, is used as an ingredient that provides strength and resilience to the turf. There are more than 420 power plants burning coal in America. The average power plant uses 100 rail cars of coal every day and produces approximately fifteen to 20 rail cars of flyash.

However, the biggest concern regarding synthetic turf is the product’s structural integrity and durability. All of these components meet or exceed the quality of comparable traditional materials.

By competitively soliciting synthetic turf, athletic surfaces and related products, U.S. Communities has eliminated the need for public agencies to go through the bidding process. U.S. Communities has a lower price per square foot of turf than a single entity would be able to generate through a competitive process from one of the contract holders, plus the research for a quality company has been done. All of this saves agencies time, money and manpower.

For additional information on this product and the U.S. Communities Cooperative Purchasing Program, contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at 301-460-5251 or kweyland@usmayors.org. You may also go to the website www.uscommunities.org for information on the program.