Jessica Lightfoot
Even Southern California Can Grow Grasses for Children
Real grass has the smell of Earth, of life, of renewal. Walking on real grass is pleasant and grounding; it can tether you to a place. Real (untreated) grass contains a multitude of life. Children and adults, too, can find worms, watch roly-polies, and chase butterflies from blade to blade. On a hot day, real grass stays cooler. Grass also traps pollution, returning fresh oxygen to the air.
Fake grass, which does none of these lovely things, creates problems for human health and the environment. Fake grass is made from polypropylene, a petroleum-based plastic material. Polypropylene is advertised as safe and durable, but it sheds microplastics – tiny plastic particles coated with toxic chemicals that contaminate our air, water, soil, and bodies. European researchers found that microplastics from artificial grass make up 15% of plastic pollution in marine waterways. A turf field sheds 10 percent of its fibers annually as microplastics. Synthetic grass also releases volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) into the atmosphere, or “off gases.” For small children with mouths and noses closer to ground level, this can cause breathing problems and is linked to some kinds of cancer. Our children’s air should not be polluted by the ground they play on.
In contrast with real grass, fake grass gets hotter on a sunny day and creates more pollution. On a 98-degree day, fake grass can reach over 200 degrees. This hot, plastic surface is dangerous to tiny feet and curious hands. Toddlers explore the ground by jumping, crawling, running, and sitting (story time, anyone?). They often walk barefoot. When there is real grass, walking barefoot can be beneficial as putting your feet into the ground or earth (grounding) has been shown to reduce inflammation and decrease time for wound healing. Putting your feet on hot plastic is a recipe for turf burns and the uptake of toxic chemicals through the skin. One of these chemicals, lead, is used in green pigment to give some fake grass a vibrant, “real” green color. Lead is neurotoxic, and no level has been proven safe.
Other toxic chemicals that can be found in fake grass are those commonly used in plastic manufacturing including BPA, PFAS, and phthalates. Plastic and plastic additives can disrupt normal hormone function in young children, contributing to early puberty in girls and declining sperm counts in boys. Since the 1980s, the amount of plastic in our environment has doubled, which means it’s more important than ever to reduce the exposure our little ones have to petroleum-based products. It is not the time to get laissez-faire and think, “It’s just a little bit.” It’s just a little bit of plastic on the string cheese, it’s just a little bit of plastic on their toy truck (that they sometimes mouth), it’s just a little bit of plastic in the yard.
If our schools, communities, and landscaping professionals can do one thing to positively impact children’s health and the health of the environment, it is to plant grass. Even in Southern California, some native grasses require little water and offer the benefits of real grass.
The Los Angeles Times offers these five low-water grasses as alternatives for those living in Southern California:
- UC Verde Buffalo Grass
- Dune sedge
- Native California bent grass
- Yarrow
- Native Mow Free
The small decisions we make in our yards and communities can positively affect the environment and make the world a safer place. What joy it could bring to plant grass and watch the world bloom.
Our children should be able to run barefoot on the Earth’s surface.
I agree. City of SB Parks & Rec Dept, please don’t install fake grass at Ortega Park as planned, not even for the soccer field. Residents deserve real grass!
For the city to allow “fake grass” at Ortega Park is crazy. What’s the long term benefit beyond maintenance and water savings that I doubt would be much of a savings. This is almost as crazy as what I just read about plans being proposed for an eight story housing structure behind the Old Mission. Seems to me involved planners of these projects are drinking more than water at their meetings.
I would love to see the citation for this — no way could this be accurate. “European researchers found that microplastics from artificial grass make up 15% of plastic pollution in marine waterways.” I’m all for real grass – but how about just a little bit of it so we’re not making electricity to power a desal plant to make it.
Agreed. I’m vehemently anti-lawn; lawn should be in parks if at all, at least in our area. Though there are alternatives; I’m not familiar with them as we’ve had a base of rock for decades, with lots of plants and trees and gray water.
Here’s one source for which I can’t vouch.
In Barcelona, fibres from artificial grass accounted for 15 per cent of plastic pieces larger than 5 millimetres in the samples from within 1 kilometre of the shore.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2383869-huge-amounts-of-plastic-from-artificial-grass-end-up-in-the-sea/
Just search “microplastics from fake grass” and see what you think of the reports.
Why are you against grass. It’s good for the planet.
Ha, I subscribe to the NewScientist. Interesting, I quote “They focused their analysis on plastic pieces larger than 5 millimeters, excluding smaller particles, known as microplastics, because it is harder to determine where they come from, says de Haan.”
So not mircoplastics. But I get it. I see flakes of the fake grass down at city college. And yes, there should be concern about the crap they add to the plastic – but that’s true of most everything in commerce today.
“ Grass takes up carbon dioxide and releases oxygen like all living plants. It doesn’t only removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but it also traps dust to keep it out of both the air and your lungs. Grass is responsible for trapping 12 million tons of dust each year that would otherwise contaminate the air.”
More grass healthier planet.
Sooo will I get paid to tear out the fake grass I was paid to put in?
I really laughed at the landscaping business on East Haley Street that has installed fake grass at their business location. Maybe it is an experimental plot.
Grass is too traditional for me. I’m for new technologies, like fake grass, that haven’t stood the test of time. Let’s experiment on our young children. Worms are overrated.