You’ve heard of synthetic grass or artificial turf and you may be thinking, ‘why bother to install synthetic grass my lawn is beautiful and healthy now?’ We’re sure you realize there are many factors involved keeping and maintaining a natural grass lawn such as watering, use of fertilizers, keeping pests away, and of course maintenance.
When you next fire up that lawn mower or spend an extra 30 minutes watering the lawn or are fighting off gophers and rabbits, take a moment to consider synthetic grass. Many methods and work required to maintain a natural lawn not only affect you but also your community and the wider environment around you. Here are just a few reasons why a synthetic grass or artificial turf installation can help the environment:
Water Conservation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates over one-third of residential water is used for lawn irrigation, this is about 4 billion gallons of water a day, nationwide. The Synthetic Turf Council (STC) estimate is every square foot synthetic turf saves 55 gallons of water per year. So, an average lawn of 1,800 square feet will save 99,000 gallons of water. See this STC article for details, Synthetic Turf Conserves More Than Three Billion Gallons of Water and Helps the Environment. In the coming years, water conservation will become more crucial as resources continue to become more valuable. Consider this: if installing synthetic grass can save you 55 gallons of water per square foot in one year, imagine the total amount of savings you have not only in your wallet, but also for the local groundwater supply! When you install synthetic grass in your lawn, not only can you still keep the natural aesthetic, you can also save you and your community a ton (literally) of water!
Pesticides – Not Required
Pesticides and herbicides come in various forms and claims are made that they can be unhealthy. You may have recently heard about the herbicide and crop desiccant Roundup® that was in the news as a possible cause if a man’s cancer. Whether the cancer claims are true or not, it is true the that when pesticides and herbicides are utilized there’s a good chance the chemicals in those product will be absorbed into the water table through runoff. With a synthetic grass installation you help alleviate potentially harmful pesticides and other chemicals from entering the water supply! Synthetic grass or artificial lawns are safe, fully tested and are non-toxic for children, pets and the environment.
Noxious Emissions
Beyond the annoying noise of leaf blowers and lawn mowers sometimes at 7 am on a Saturday morning they also contribute to poor air quality. Annoying sounds yes, but worse for the environment since the carbon monoxide emitted from these gas-powered machines as well as other lawn and gardening equipment negatively affect the ozone layer. According to the EPA, a push lawn mower emits as much pollution in one hour as 11 cars traveling on the road. This represents nearly 5% percent of our U.S. air pollution and leads to smog production! Help reduce carbon emissions and be asleep at 7 am on a Saturday! With a synthetic grass installation you are no longer a source of pollution!
