20/05/2021
I can’t condone the use of plastic grass especially knowing that it causes the deaths of earthworms by trapping them underground
PLASTIC GRASS
British gardens are being dug up and replaced with plastic grass. But this isn’t the flaky, fading stuff on which oranges were once displayed at the greengrocer. Today’s artificial grass is nearly identical to the real thing.
With products named after beautiful places – Lake District, Valencia – modern artificial turf mimics not just the mottled colouring and shape of grass blades, but the warm springiness of earth.
Unlike the grass itself, the market is growing. Dozens of specialist firms now market fake grass as a replacement for garden lawns. UK sales have surged and valued the global market at $2.5bn (£2bn) in 2016 and forecasts a “staggering” rise to $5.8bn by 2023.
While fake grass might indeed be greener, at least in colour, its environmental impacts are difficult to gloss over.
Paul Hetherington, fundraising director for the charity Buglife, says “It blocks access to the soil beneath for burrowing insects, such as solitary bees, and the ground above for soil dwellers such as worms, which will be starved of food beneath it,” he adds. “It provides food for absolutely no living creatures.”
This is a particular concern in view of the dramatic global decline in insect species. The UK is on course to miss its own targets for protecting its natural spaces, and has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows in a single generation.
If you would like to petition the UK government over this here's a petition.
PETITION: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/585520
LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/02/turf-it-out-is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-artificial-grass
PHOTO: Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
