Sustainable turf solutions: how one company is leading the way for eco-friendly artificial sports fields

Written by

28 August 2024

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4 min read

From organic infill made of olive pits, cool yarn technology, and sports pads made from plastics and rubber otherwise destined for landfills; ArchiPro explores recent innovations in the sustainability and performance of artificial turf for sporting fields by TigerTurf.

Stephen Stones, Managing Director (Asia Pacific) for TigerTurf.

ArchiPro speaks with Stephen Stones, Asia Pacific Managing Director for TigerTurf. Stones explains that TigerTurf understands environmental concerns surrounding artificial turf and is constantly innovating to address these while offering high-quality products.

"There are many misconceptions about artificial turf versus natural turf,” remarks Stones.

“A natural sports field is not left to grow free; the reality is maintaining involves a significant carbon footprint from lawn mowers, harmful pesticides, fertilisers and weed sprays along with watering, coring and drainage.”

“By contrast, artificial surfaces do not require this maintenance, and unlike natural fields, they can handle up to 80 hours of use per week.”

Auckland Council’s Parrs Park

TigerTurf recently completed a project for Auckland Council to resurface the 9600m2 football field at Parrs Park. TigerTurf manufactured and installed one of its premium hard-wearing artificial grass products designed for optimal performance and durability.

“Endurance 50 is a unique product using our hardest-wearing yarn, XP. Its UV protection will ensure the turf maintains its vibrant colour and structural integrity, even under prolonged exposure to sunlight.” Endurance 50 has TigerTurf’s TigerCool yarn technology, which can reduce surface temperatures by up to 10 degrees Celsius.

Stones adds that this turf was specifically designed for its clever new organic infills, such as the ELIA Olive Pit used in the Parrs Park project. “ELIA Renufil is made from reclaimed olive pits that are tumbled to be smooth and uniform, making it an excellent organic infill option,” says Stones. “This natural alternative has significant benefits over the traditional rubber infill, such as not breaking down like other organic infills.”

ELIA Olive Pit Infill is 100 per cent organic, biodegradable and heavier than any other organic alternative, minimising chances of infill being washed out in heavy rain events. Moreover, its ability to absorb 30 per cent of its weight in water has a significant cooling effect on the surface.

The installation also used a Sine Pad III shock pad under the artificial grass football field. This advanced shock pad provides superior impact absorption, reducing players' risk of injury by minimising the stress on joints and muscles during play.

Westlakes Girls’ High School

TigerTurf was tasked to resurface the two full-size football fields at Westlake Girls High School, totalling 11,000m2. “The site was subject to severe flooding in 2023 during Cyclone Gabrielle, and the floods washed away a significant portion of the traditional rubber infill.”

TigerTurf’s Endurance NRG non-infilled surface was chosen for this project, which resulted in neither stabilising (sand) nor performance infill (microplastics) being used; furthermore, this sustainable product has been designed and engineered to provide sports performance. “Our Endurance NRG comes with an unlimited use warranty and is suitable for flat-soled shoes, making it ideal for school and public fields,” says Stones.

“Due to flooding damage, the pad under the turf had to be replaced. A new 25mm thick Insitu rubber pad made from recycled tyres was installed to support the performance of the chosen turf product.”

Ormiston Primary School

Starting as a greenfield, TigerTurf designed, constructed and installed the new eco-friendly 6674m2 football field built for Ormiston Primary School. It included two new innovations: the new NRG2 non-infilled sports turf over TigerTurf’s ecocept drainage and sports base system.

The patented system ecocept, developed by TigerTurf’s parent company (TenCate Grass), uses end-of-life plastic waste with end-of-life car tyres.

“The ecocept pad provides superior drainage, water management and shock absorption– reducing the impact on the players' joints and muscles while keeping the surface free of water pooling,” says Stones. “In the case of Ormiston, the sports pad diverted approximately 45,000 kilograms of mixed plastic waste and 5,000 end-of-life vehicle tyres from landfill.”

“NRG2 turf is one of our latest generation of non or no-performance infilled turfs that eliminates the need to add any mobile infill,” says Stones. “NRG2 is the little brother of our PurePT product, which was developed in conjunction with Dutch Premier League Football Club PSV Eindhoven, and this product plays more like natural turf than any other artificial surface before.”

TigerTurf, in conjunction with its parent company TenCate Grass, is leading the way to a new generation of sports turf, offering superior performance, reduced maintenance and significant environmental benefits by utilising artificial turf.

"The new technology used in these projects is significant, and it's great to see the longevity and quality of the fields, with some lasting well over 10 years with proper maintenance and high-quality products," remarks Stones.

"We're not just creating products for the sake of it; we work closely with top athletes to ensure our products meet their needs, making sure there's a real purpose behind what we do."

Learn more about Tiger Turf’s sustainable solutions on ArchiPro today.

*TigerCool and ecocept are registered trademarks.

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