Plastic Turf Fields Are Taking Over America

Business|Plastic Turf Fields Are Taking Over America

Across the country, cities and towns are replacing grass fields with synthetic turf, a change that is driven by youth sports teams eager for more year-round playing spaces and the multibillion-dollar turf industry working to convince communities that plastic fields are better than natural ones.

Many local officials, at the urging of families involved in youth sports, say turf fields can easily be played on after it rains and don’t need to be mowed or reseeded.

But some residents, environmentalists and coaches are pushing back, claiming turf — which is made of plastic blades that mimic the look of grass and often sit on a layer of crumb rubber — is expensive to maintain because it must be replaced after several years, is vulnerable to flooding and exposes children to harmful chemicals and hotter temperatures.

The debate over whether to install turf over grass fields has become a referendum on sports, health, the environment and the use of scarce public resources. In 2022, Boston effectively banned the installation of artificial turf, and municipalities in California, Connecticut and elsewhere have followed suit.

The rift has been particularly intense in Ridgewood, N.J., a bedroom community of 26,000 residents and about 15 miles west of Manhattan. Disputes over turf have spilled onto local blogs and into public meetings, where some of the village’s powerful youth sports leagues — there are at least 10 — have lobbied for replacing grass fields at schools and parks with synthetic turf to give their athletes more chances to play, rain or shine.

“It is a sports-crazed town with lots of sports-crazed, Type A parents and sports-crazed, Type A kids,” said Mark Sullivan, a Ridgewood resident who coached softball and baseball, which his daughter and son played.