SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/433388
While reusing the turf in another location might sound enticing (and even altruistic, since there is always the idea of donating something that is no longer needed), Heinlein notes, it often is not fea- sible from a practical standpoint. "There are some fields that should not be reused. They have little or no useful life left and it's only a matter of time, and some- times that's a very short time, before that repurposed surface will have to be taken out. To me, that's just making disposal someone else's problem." Reusing the current infill in a new sur- face, meanwhile, is the more popular option by far. Heinlein cites the savings to the field owner (who does not have to purchase new infill) as one of the reasons. "Any infill you can reclaim is something you don't have to buy. Often, the contrac- tor will give the owner some credit for this; they might say, 'If you want to re-use the infill, we'll knock this much off our bid.' That way, both the owner and a contractor get a benefit." Something to be aware of, he points out, is that as technology has changed over the years, infill has changed as well. Many of the early fields were built with infill materi- als, most often sand and rubber, neither of which met tight specifications or quality requirements. "Today," Heinlein notes, "the industry is much more aware of the impact of the infill characteristics. When we were a brand-new industry, we did not have the knowledge that comes with experience. There wasn't a lot of information available on sand sizing, rubber sizing, even the sources of rubber. Our infills now are technically much more predictable than in the past." While the technology exists to take out an old carpet surface and create new compo- nents with it, Heinlein notes, it is just now becoming available to the turf industry. "Old carpets can be processed and pellet- ized into feedstock for molded plastic parts, such as pallets and field underlayments," he notes. "We have a proven process for this, but right now, cost is a deterrent." And as first generation of fields starts to wear out, the clock is ticking. A better option needs to be found and needs to be made available. Even the most recent edition of the book, "Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual," by the American Sports Builders Association, included chap- ters on sustainability and field recycling. Heinlein, who authored those segments of the book, says the demand is out there. "By 2016, we will see about 1,000 fields www.stma.org December 2014 | SportsTurf 35 "By 2016, we will see about 1,000 fields reaching their end of life every year," says Heinlein.