by Shane Henson — July 13, 2012—Artificial turf fields like those commonly used for university sports don’t last forever, and with an estimated 31,000 U.S. fields on the line for replacement in the next 25 years, facilities managers across the country wanting to replace and dispose of old turf may find it’s not as simple as they expected. Landfills have become expensive options, and in some states with tough sustainability laws, using landfills to dispose of old turf is not an option at all.
However, Turf Reclamation Services (TRS) has developed a unique solution for artificial turf removal and recycling that involves a combination of new equipment that slices and rolls the turf carpet and a new recycling process that extracts the infill and then recycles the carpet.
“No other organization has developed such a comprehensive beginning-to-end solution,” said Mark Heinlein, president of TRS. “We’ve been in the artificial turf business since 1999, so we had a good perspective on what was at stake. And we found great partners to help us innovate a solution that is simple, efficient and scalable.”
Leveraging over a decade of front-line artificial turf knowledge, TRS developed specialized equipment that removes the field with minimal disruption to the base. The equipment includes a self-propelled drive unit called the Wrangler, and two accessories for reclaiming the field. The Viper attachment slices the turf into manageable 45″ ribbons the entire width of the field. Each ribbon is then tightly rolled using a second attachment called the SideWinder. These rolls can then be easily loaded onto trucks for transport. A separate machine, the Rattlesnake, is in final development to remove and supersack the material directly on site. The prototype Rattlesnake has proven this concept on several fields, and the commercial unit is expected in late 2012, says TRS.
Depending on the customer’s needs, a number of things can happen to the turf and infill once removed from the site. The turf can be repurposed into a secondary market or be recycled into new products such as synthetic turf infill. The rubber and sand infill can be reused on the project or further cleaned, sieved and separated for use on future synthetic turf projects. The entire recycling process is managed by TRS, which can supply a Certified Chain of Custody to ensure the field elements have been properly handled and processed, the company says.
