As Santa Clara County supervisors consider a proposed artificial turf ban on county-owned land, parents and activists are pointing to the disposal of a local high school’s old field to highlight emerging concerns that plastic fields can’t be meaningfully recycled and come with a host of potential environmental consequences.
When Saratoga High School replaced its old artificial turf field last year, district records show a company called TurfCycle USA issued a chain of custody letter stating, “14 trucks were loaded from Saratoga HS and shipped to the TurfCycle facility” in Pescadero. From there, the document states, the old turf field would be “re-purposed into the local community for general landscaping, batting cages, gym flooring, cross-fit, sport related ground coverings and erosion control.”
A group of parents and local activists who had been tracking news reports from across the country about giant rolls of artificial turf found piling up in fields or illegally dumped followed three of those trucks, however, which they say did not go to the Pescadero facility as the TurfCycle document stated. Instead, parents watched and snapped photos as the three trucks left more than 50 large rolls of artificial turf in a San Martin field, about 75 miles away from the TurfCycle facility and in an entirely different county.
It’s unclear what happened to the turf that was left in San Martin. The parents and activists say it no longer appears to be there.
In May, the property owner was hit with a zoning violation for “outdoor storage of artificial turf” and emails show a Santa Clara County code enforcement officer told the school district that “the storage of artificial turf is not an allowed use in the county.”
“I was actually really dumbfounded,” said Saratoga High School senior Nicole Lee, who had been leading a campaign at her school to swap artificial turf for an organically managed grass field. “I didn’t understand how this could happen.”
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Neither TurfCycle nor the property owner responded to inquiries from NBC Bay Area. When asked about why some of its old field ended up in a San Martin field, the district said it was “concerned” and will hold vendors “to the same high standards we expect” on future projects.
TurfCycle sells used artificial turf and its website states the company has “been the leader in recycled artificial grass since 2012.”
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According to the site, TurfCycle is seeking out small business owners with land and a forklift who can act as distributors for the company. The company depicts used turf for sale in locations across the country, including Pescadero and San Martin.
But even if artificial turf temporarily gets a second life at a golf course, gym, or elsewhere, there’s no official recycling program in California, and critics worry that artificial turf hitting the secondary market will ultimately end up in a landfill or could be illegally dumped.
Nicole Lee and the parents who followed part of Saratoga High School’s old field to San Martin are among those supporting the proposed ban in Santa Clara County, which has also garnered support from the Santa Clara County Medical Association. They say artificial turf fields come with severe environmental costs and fear that chemicals often found in those fields – such as PFAS, known as forever chemicals – can be harmful to humans and wildlife.
“They’re not truly recycled, and that’s a problem,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee, who proposed the ban earlier this year. “I think it’s important to make sure that we have a proper way of disposing of these, because right now we do have a lot of these fields all over our country and in our county as well. So, this is a major problem that we still need to contend with in the future.”
Lee’s proposed ban, however, has been met with fierce opposition from the artificial turf industry and many in the local youth sports community. They say a ban would exacerbate a significant shortage of places for kids and adults to play sports in the region, and argue manufacturers continue to make improvements that address some of those health and environmental concerns by moving towards more natural components and reducing harmful chemicals in their products.
“Recreational fields are more than just playing surfaces; they are essential community infrastructure,” Synthetic Turf Council President and CEO Melanie Taylor said in a statement. “Synthetic turf plays a crucial role in providing year-round access to affordable, durable, and eco-friendly fields, especially in drought-prone states like California. A turf ban in Santa Clara County hurts families, students, and communities."
The Saratoga High School Field
Nicole Lee began diving into the latest research around artificial turf well before those parents followed part of her school’s old field to San Martin.
She recalls studying for finals during her sophomore year when her attention was suddenly diverted to the school’s athletic field.
Saratoga High had announced it would be replacing its old artificial turf field with a new artificial turf field, and Lee had concerns as a member of the school’s color guard who used the field regularly.
“The individual blades would get stuck all over my clothes,” she said. “So, obviously it was going down drains and polluting waterways.”
Her concerns mounted, she said, when learning about chemicals often found in the components of artificial turf fields. Worried the school’s field might be dangerous to both students’ health and the environment, she and a few friends formed an environmental action club and began lobbying their school to scrap its plans for artificial turf.
But their efforts proved unsuccessful.
“It’s really sad because we were trying to make a change,” said Lee of the district’s decision.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District wrote, in part:
"While the board acknowledges that natural grass can, under certain circumstances, offer a more environmentally friendly option, it was determined that it does not meet the district’s needs at this time due to significant challenges, including a two-year displacement of field use during installation as well as ongoing concerns about maintenance, durability under high usage, and the potential for high volume pesticide application."
The Santa Clara County Medical Association Issues a recommendation
Though Nicole Lee’s efforts weren’t enough to sway school district officials, they caught the attention of Dr. Cindy Russell, the co-chair of the Environmental Health Committee for the Santa Clara County Medical Association.
“[The students] were really courageous to take a stand and did a good job,” Russell said.
Dr. Russell and her colleagues dove deeper into the issue and came away concerned by chemicals found in artificial turf, both in the fake grass carpet, and the infill used to give fields a softer feel, which is often made from ground up recycled tires called “crumb rubber.”
The European Union recently issued a ban on the sale of crumb rubber and other microplastics, which will go into effect in 2031.
“Studies have shown that artificial turf contains many chemicals and many of those are known to be hazardous,” Russell said. “They include carcinogens, neurotoxins, reproductive toxins, and endocrine disruptors.
Artificial turf manufacturers stand by the safety of their products, and say they continue to take steps to address any potential health concerns, such as offering more natural infill options like sand, or even olive pits.
And some believe any human health concerns are overblown.
“I really feel if it was that unsafe, would professional teams be putting professional athletes on it?” said Shawn Blakeman, a former professional soccer player and the sporting director for the Los Gatos United Soccer Club. “And I would say, no, they probably wouldn’t.”
Russell said we still don’t have the full picture, and she acknowledges there are “research gaps.” Even so, she and the association felt they should act.
This summer, they were concerned enough to write a policy recommendation advising against artificial turf fields. They cite potential health concerns, but also “direct and indirect environmental costs,” among others.
“I think we’re saying we want to take a precautionary approach,” Russell said. “We don’t want to just ignore the problem and then wait until later and it may be too late.”
Across the U.S., there are upwards of 13,000 artificial turf fields, according to the Synthetic Turf Council. Each one needs replacing every eight-to-ten years or so and critics fear the fields are making our global plastic pollution problem that much worse. According to a recent study from Pew, about 11 million metric tons of plastic waste finds its way into our oceans each year, enough to fill more than half a million dump trucks.
Researchers from the University of Barcelona found plastic fibers from artificial turf fields in about half of the hundreds of water samples they recently took from the sea surface and rivers around the city. The fibers, according to the study, accounted for up to 15% of the plastics found in those water samples.
Only a small handful of facilities in the United States claim they can recycle used artificial turf, and critics like Russell question how green that process truly is.
“There’s no good answer for the disposal of artificial turf,” Russell said. “The problem with artificial turf is that it’s plastic and chemicals. Once you create it, then you have it for a lifetime.”
“Devastating to Youth Sports”
Many in the local youth sports community, however, fervently oppose a ban on artificial turf and say that removing usable fields for kids comes with too many consequences.
“I think it would be devastating to youth sports, all sports,” Blakeman said. “There’s just not enough space or fields available.”
Blakeman said there’s a major shortage of quality fields for kids to play sports in the region and worries about the health consequences – both physical and mental – if that shortage is made worse.
Grass fields, he said, simply can’t withstand as much use and must be shut down for months out of the year due to weather and maintenance. When poorly maintained, he argues they can also lead to ankle and knee injuries for players.
“Everyone would love to play on a beautiful natural grass field,” Blakeman said. “However, that’s not the reality because many of them aren’t safe to play on because they’re not properly maintained.”
Former professional soccer player and Cinch Sports CEO Kelly Gray said the vast majority of grass fields he encounters can't offer the same playing experience as an artificial turf field and says swapping artificial turf for grass simply isn’t realistic.
“Cities would have to spend so much money to maintain those,” he said. "I think that there are a thousand things that are far more important [than an artificial turf ban]."
Just like the health impacts, the cost of artificial turf compared to natural grass is still being debated.
While artificial turf critics typically don’t argue that natural grass fields are more expensive to maintain on an annual basis, they say they can be more expensive in the long run. That’s because a grass field, if managed properly, can last decades, they argue, but artificial turf fields must be torn out and replaced every eight to 10 years at great expense.
Since artificial turf fields can be used significantly more throughout the year, however, they can also lead to added revenue for school districts or anyone else hoping to rent out their facilities, which is something that Supervisor Lee acknowledges.
“I think [artificial turf] is certainly a better product from the point of view of somebody providing the fields or renting them out, because you certainly have more play time,” Lee said.
But just as artificial turf manufacturers say their products are getting safer, proponents of natural grass say new innovations are leading to natural turf fields that can withstand heavier use and require less water and maintenance.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the proposed artificial turf ban in January. Whatever happens, it surely won’t spell the end of the debate.
