- Seals
Make artificial turf a little greener
European Football Championship 2024 is approaching the finals and will of course be played on real grass. But take a look at how a smart and simple product from Norwegian Ulefos collects the small rubber granules and prevents them from spreading from the artificial turf pitches to the water environment.
Less microplastics in the drain
The many children and young people who aspire to take the players' places in the future spend countless hours training on the widespread artificial turf pitches - the ones with the distinctive little black rubber granules.
But did you know that the EU has recently adopted a ban on the use of rubber granules on football pitches? The granules on artificial turf pitches consist of 90% old, granulated car tires. Unfortunately, the granules help spread microplastics in nature, which is the reason for the ban. However, at Betech, our seals play a small role in preventing the granules from the current pitches from being spread into nature with the rainwater.
The granules are typically carried from the playing fields to the drainage system with the rainwater when it rains. But they can also get stuck to shoes and clothes and are discharged from households during washing and cleaning.
Ulefos, which makes the distinctive cast iron manhole covers we see on the street everywhere, has developed a granule catcher to protect the aquatic environment. The artificial grass granule collector sits in the drains and traps the microparticles so that they do not mix with the wastewater and spread into nature.
The built-in strainer retains the granules and can be emptied as it fills up, just like the water trap in the shower. This way, you can collect the granules and put them back into the ball courts.
Betech's sealing rings for the 10 different sizes of drain inserts prevent the smaller particles from being washed "around" the catcher and further into the rainwater system. The seals are molded from a rubber compound that is particularly resistant to water, UV sunlight, ozone and other weather influences.
Did you know:
... each artificial turf pitch releases an average of 1 ton of granules per year.
... the first full-size artificial turf pitch (for 11-a-side football) was built in 1992. The pitch is located in Ikast and still exists today.
Source: www.genan.dk