Can be recycled but isn't. Should the tax payer have to fund the specialist recycling facilities required to deal with it? How's that voluntary idea working in other areas? The voluntary reduction in peat compost which hasn't happened, the voluntary reduction in grouse moor burning, the volunary mask wearing to prevent Covid spread etc? The industry marketing departments will have you believe plastic grass is better than the real thing in every regard and maybe a reputable company will fit it properly but I bet 90% or more is just slapped down as a temporary fix. Football clubs and other commercial operations are heavily regulated when it comes to fitting the stuff, use it for many years and can't just send it all to landfill afterwards but domestic use has none of that. And hopefully most 2 year olds will be very disappointed in their parents for using the stuff when they're old enough to understand.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
For those who didn't sign the petition the government has responded. Their hollow, meaningless response is as follows:
The Government has no plans to ban the use of artificial grass.
We prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright.
The
Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy for England, published in
2018, outlines the ways in which we will meet our ambition to eliminate
all avoidable plastic waste by taking action across each stage of the
product lifecycle as we move toward a more circular economy: www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england.
I guess that by 'help' they actually mean don't do a single damn thing about it. I'd read the waste strategy for England but given Wales brought in a blanket plastic bag tax 10 years ago and England are still operating a voluntary scheme for small to medium shops, I suspect the waste strategy is not worth wasting my time on.
But it should be repeated that a ban is probably a poor solution to the problem for all the reasons stated previously. One day we will have a government who isn't inept and anti-environment and then maybe that will be a better time to deal with stricter regulations.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I was wondering what we could have covered spoil heaps and grave edges with if they banned artificial grass. Pure cotton sheets maybe, dyed green, put in the washing machine every day, using detergents and a lot of water.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I was wondering what we could have covered spoil heaps and grave edges with if they banned artificial grass. Pure cotton sheets maybe, dyed green, put in the washing machine every day, using detergents and a lot of water.
Thread still going. Goodo !
Most of the spoil heaps near me have been covered with country parks .
Hundreds and hundreds of acres of it.
I’m not sure I have ever noticed artificial turf on a grave; will have to go through the cemetery and look.
The best use I have seen recently is to cover the mesh fences round building sites, which makes it more attractive.
“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
Here's some fun reading for plastic grass lovers. Plastic grass was pioneered under the Astroturf brand by Monsanto, one of the world leading companies in the pollution, GM crops, cancer causing chemical production and general all round evil corporation. Monsanto are well known for their 'donations' to governments but I doubt this has any relation to the ban not being considered. Something to consider when gazing out over your green plastic eco-desert anyway
I’m the opposite @philippasmith2. I struggle to visualise an acre but if I re-image it as a plot 100 yards by 50 yards (or, dare I say it, a small football pitch) scales fall from my eyes.
How do you stand in the use of Wales (or Belgium) as a measure of a very large parcel of land? See if you can put these in size order, smallest to largest: half the size of Wales, 20,000 square kilometres, the area of Amazon rainforest destroyed 2017-2018, Belgium.
Posts
We prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright.
The Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy for England, published in 2018, outlines the ways in which we will meet our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by taking action across each stage of the product lifecycle as we move toward a more circular economy: www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Most of the spoil heaps near me have been covered with country parks
Hundreds and hundreds of acres of it.
I’m not sure I have ever noticed artificial turf on a grave; will have to go through the cemetery and look.
The best use I have seen recently is to cover the mesh fences round building sites, which makes it more attractive.
How do you stand in the use of Wales (or Belgium) as a measure of a very large parcel of land? See if you can put these in size order, smallest to largest: half the size of Wales, 20,000 square kilometres, the area of Amazon rainforest destroyed 2017-2018, Belgium.