The 2024 European Football Championship is approaching its final stages and will naturally be played on real grass. But take a look at how a smart and simple product from Norwegian company Ulefos collects the small rubber granules and prevents them from spreading from the artificial turf fields into the aquatic environment.
The many children and young people who hope to take over the players' places in the future spend countless hours training on the many widely used artificial grass pitches – those with the characteristic, small black rubber granules.
But did you know that the EU recently adopted a ban on the use of rubber granules on sports fields? The granules on artificial turf fields consist of 90 percent old, granulated car tires. Unfortunately, the granules contribute to spreading microplastics in nature, which is why the ban exists. However, at Betech, our seals play a small role in preventing the granules from the current sports fields from being spread into nature with rainwater.
The granules are typically carried from the playing fields to the drainage system with rainwater when it rains. However, they can also get caught in shoes and clothes and thus be discharged from households during washing and cleaning.
Ulefos, which makes the characteristic well covers made of cast metal that we see on the streets all over the place, has developed a granulate collector that is designed to protect the aquatic environment. The artificial grass granulate collector sits in the sewer pipes and traps the microparticles so that they do not mix with the sewer water and spread out into nature.
The built-in sieve retains the granules and can be drained like a water lock in the shower as it fills up. In this way, the granules can be collected and put back on the playing fields.
Becht’s sealing rings for the 10 different sizes of drain pipes prevent the smaller particles from being washed ”outside” the trap and further into the rainwater system. We pour the seals with a rubber compound that is particularly resistant to water, UV sunlight, ozone and other weather influences.
… 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 laid in 1992. The pitch is located in Ikast and still exists to this day.
Source: www.genan.dk
