Wales may ban fake grass

[Mason-]

Good.

Think it’s only a matter of time before we see some study about birds dying with plastic fake grass lodged in their digestive tract.

 

[Welshman]

I don't think its hard to understand why its acceptable in specific use cases but at the same time understand the issues it is causing as more people plastic up their green spaces.

right acceptable for one group of people, but not another group......So not really a wales wide ban then.

 

[Welshman]

No expert but it could be because children would need lower levels of whatever toxicity to become an issue compared to adults, plus kids tend to spend more time in contact with it on the floor where as adults will just walk on it in shoes/boots.

Also you'll only be on a sport pitch for an hour or so a week maybe where as if its at home kids could spend hours every day on it so their exposure could be vastly higher?

Sports pitches are used a lot more than the Hour or so a week as you state....... but hey, they only walk on them right.

But the article says " Coming off the grass", so if its coming off the grass when being played upon, is it not coming off the grass when it just lays there, not being played upon....or is it magic and it knows, hey children are playing on me, i need to give off toxins.....Poor Journalism to say the least.

 

[200sols]

right acceptable for one group of people, but not another group......So not really a wales wide ban then.

 

[a1ex2001]

Whats also pathetic with statement posted within the article, is this bit here

"There are quite worrying reports, from a number of university sources, saying that the toxicity coming off artificial grass, if it's played on by children and so on, is quite alarming."

But yet its ok to use them for sports pitches. does the toxic gases not come off it, if adults play on them then.

The really annoying bit about this is from my reading it seems that almost all of the risk is in the rubber crumb used to backfill sports pitches as it is made from ground up car tyres, nobody has this in there gardens domestic artificial lawns are either back filled with sand or require no back filling at all.

 

[Welshman]

I wonder what Welsh Gov will say about this then

Postponements, prices and plastic – what’s the state of pitches in Wales? - Sport Wales

It’s an issue that dominates the winter months in Wales.

www.sport.wales

FAW of wales doubling the amount of plastic pitches by 2024, to over 100 as they cant afford the up keep of normal grass pitches.....Welsh Gov, Welsh Councils, Welsh Rugby all ploughing huge amounts of money into Plastic Sports pitches. With Welsh Government themselves ploughing £1.1m into grants for them and even more to come.

But hey, cant have them for your garden. Pathetic

 

[a1ex2001]

Good.

Think it’s only a matter of time before we see some study about birds dying with plastic fake grass lodged in their digestive tract.

Do birds eat normal grass, I thought they ate bugs, worms and fruit/seeds?

I wonder what Welsh Gov will say about this then

Postponements, prices and plastic – what’s the state of pitches in Wales? - Sport Wales

It’s an issue that dominates the winter months in Wales.

www.sport.wales

FAW of wales doubling the amount of plastic pitches by 2024, to over 100 as they cant afford the up keep of normal grass pitches.....Welsh Gov, Welsh Councils, Welsh Rugby all ploughing huge amounts of money into Plastic Sports pitches. With Welsh Government themselves ploughing £1.1m into grants for them and even more to come.

But hey, cant have them for your garden. Pathetic

Doubly annoying when these sports pitches are the ones back filled with ground up car tyres which is where the cancer risk and heavy metals all seem to come from!

 

[sovietspybob]

Sports pitches are used a lot more than the Hour or so a week as you state....... but hey, they only walk on them right.

But the article says " Coming off the grass", so if its coming off the grass when being played upon, is it not coming off the grass when it just lays there, not being played upon....or is it magic and it knows, hey children are playing on me, i need to give off toxins.....Poor Journalism to say the least.

I mean the average individual person who uses a sports pitch probably only uses it for an hour or so a week, i imagine if you play 5 a side with mates from the pub you'll be on a council sports pitch for 90 minutes a week? You're unlikely to go there several again times and spend hours on it rather than if you have it at home you'll be exposed to it for a much longer during say a weeks period.

I still think it's slightly strange though as you say as the rubber fill material has been known to be pretty nasty for ages now but I'm just guessing that's the rational for banning home stuff rather than shared use places with it.

 

[Welshman]

What i love is all the comments from the english members.....Why not push for your own country to do it and see where you get

 

[Welshman]

I mean the average individual person who uses a sports pitch probably only uses it for an hour or so a week, i imagine if you play 5 a side with mates from the pub you'll be on a council sports pitch for 90 minutes a week? You're unlikely to go there several again times and spend hours on it rather than if you have it at home you'll be exposed to it for a much longer during say a weeks period.

I still think it's slightly strange though as you say as the rubber fill material has been known to be pretty nasty for ages now but I'm just guessing that's the rational for banning home stuff rather than shared use places with it.

but home lawns down used rubber fill material......they use sand.

 

[sovietspybob]

but home lawns down used rubber fill material......they use sand.

Well i imagine while the rubber stuff is nasty in the commercial stuff that's not the only nasty thing in plastic grass?

 

[a1ex2001]

but home lawns down used rubber fill material......they use sand.

Exactly this, I've not seen a single domestic product for sale that uses rubber crumb as backfill, maybe I was shopping at the wrong end of the market but it is my understanding that this is only used on sport pitches/public installations and it is much more durable and gives a nicer playing surface.

 

[a1ex2001]

Well i imagine while the rubber stuff is nasty in the commercial stuff that's not the only nasty thing in plastic grass?

I've read loads of research and I can find very little that refers to the actual grass and not black rubber crumb from car tyres.

 

[Welshman]

Exactly this, I've not seen a single domestic product for sale that uses rubber crumb as backfill, maybe I was shopping at the wrong end of the market but it is my understanding that this is only used on sport pitches/public installations and it is much more durable and gives a nicer playing surface.

yes it stops the players, users getting hurt as much when falling on the surface and in some cases deadens the bounce of the ball, so its not like a ping pong all over the place....that used to happen on the older plastic sports pitches using sand products as back fill.

 

[a1ex2001]

yes it stops the players, users getting hurt as much when falling on the surface and in some cases deadens the bounce of the ball, so its not like a ping pong all over the place....that used to happen on the older plastic sports pitches using sand products as back fill.

Plastic pitches in the 90's were more like a dry ski slope I can remember destroying may a pair of tracky bottoms playing on one which was preferable to loosing all the skin off your legs everytime you fell down!

 

[Welshman]

Plastic pitches in the 90's were more like a dry ski slope I can remember destroying may a pair of tracky bottoms playing on one which was preferable to loosing all the skin off your legs everytime you fell down!

Yup as an ex goal keeper i can attest to losing lots of skin and ruining lots of kit on artificial surfaces........yet i broke my leg, landing wrong on a grass pitch, with the help of an over zealous midfielder from the opposing team

 

[kaiowas]

Skinning your knees on a plastic pitch wasn’t all bad news. As a kid I had a scar on my knee from having fallen off my bike and then picking at the scab too much. Played some football at uni and completely skinned the same knee. When it recovered the original scar had gone.

 

[mattyfez]

Skinning your knees on a plastic pitch wasn’t all bad news. As a kid I had a scar on my knee from having fallen off my bike and then picking at the scab too much. Played some football at uni and completely skinned the same knee. When it recovered the original scar had gone.

Modern problems require modern solutions hahah!

 

[Thekwango]

I lost so much skin to Astro pitches back in the day. That said, slide tackles were still immensely satisfying, despite losing a pound of flesh.

 

[Liefrich]

What i love is all the comments from the english members.....Why not push for your own country to do it and see where you get

I live in Wales and I'd support a ban. Is that okay for you?