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Shaken and shredded –
but not dumped

Bus iness mode l s fo r recover ing a r t i f i c i a l g rass p i t ches ga in g round

With the volume of discarded synthetic turf sports pitches growing greater and

greater worldwide, the cry for smart recycling solutions is getting louder and

louder. A state-of-the-art facility to tackle redundant artificial fields in the

Netherlands is among new business initiatives launched recently.

thetic sports fields or can be used, as
an example, for drainage. Cleaned
rubber granules typically find their
way into industry with RTA being
‘well-suited’ for a variety of plastic
applications.
These ‘100%’ recycled products are
certified to the highest standards, says
the company. ‘These are high-quality
raw materials with a high environmen-
tal value and a competitive price.’ The
production process itself is certified
and is checked annually.

At home…And AbroAd
According to GBN’s Eric van Roekel,
the new facility is a major step forward
in finding ways to help solve the
growing number of end-of-life syn-
thetic sports fields. ‘In the
Netherlands, we have linked the large
supply of end-of-life synthetic turf
sports fields to a specific demand. But
there is a global problem with few
players capable of recycling synthetic
surfaces. That is why we also plan to
go abroad.’

While a debate over perceived health
risks associated with artificial grass
continues to dominate the headlines
(some studies link rubber granules to
cancer), both recyclers and the artifi-
cial sports fields industry have put a
lot of effort and money into new busi-
ness models to create a second life for
used pitches.
TenCate Grass Group of the
Netherlands is among partners who
have invested in a new company to
enable municipalities and sports clubs
to have end-of-life synthetic turf
recovered in a sustainable manner. In
mid-September, GBN Artificial Grass
Recycling began operations on an
industrial site near Amsterdam where

synthetic turf is processed into ‘high-
end products’ for reuse in industry
and even in the construction of new
sports pitches.

200 pitches per yeAr
The facility covers part of a 30 000 m2
site and has the capacity to process
the 200 synthetic turf sports fields
that reach their end of life in the
Netherlands every year. According to

GBN, until recently, these fields ended
up in a large ‘waste mountain’ and,
put simply, a responsible and sustain-
able processing plant was lacking. A
large area of open space is set aside
for the storage of materials, which
eliminates intermediate storage at
other locations or the need for
exports.

shAking And shredding
At the Amsterdam facility, sand and
rubber are shaken from synthetic turf
mats and then separated and washed
to regain their full value as pure raw
materials.
The mats themselves are shredded
and processed into so-called recycled
peat agglomerate (RTA). The clean
sand is suitable as infill in new syn-

A u t h o r Martijn Reintjes

strong AlliAnce, high goAls
The Alliance of Synthetic Turf Suppliers and
Contractors established GBN Artificial Grass
Recycling in 2019. Members of the alliance are
founder GBN (part of Strukton Civiel), Antea Sport
/ Edel Grass, TenCate Grass Group / CSC Sport /
Greenfields and Domo Sports Grass / Sports &
Leisure Group. These partners are individually
active in the development and production of syn-
thetic turf components, the manufacture and instal-
lation of synthetic turf sports fields and the con-
struction of sports facilities.

The Amsterdam facility has enough capacity to process the 200 synthetic turf sports fields in the Netherlands that have to be pulled up every year.

Sand and rubber are shaken from the synthetic turf mats and then separated and
washed to regain their full value as pure raw materials.

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