Should I be getting angry about the fact that 3G pitches and plastic crumb playgrounds poisoning our children and waterways?

[ticktickticktickBOOM]

I only heard about this today but apparently all these play surfaces are made out of toxic car tyres which are continually releasing chemical dust onto our children and toxic leachate into our waterways!

Every school my child has been at has installed one of these in the last 10 years, and every playground has this.

Apparently the NASUWT teacher union are petitioning the government to get these banned.

Does anyone know more about this? Is this a giant health bomb just waiting to happen?

YABU - just another worry, let it go
YANBU - this is horrific, we should all be up in arms about our childrens health being experimented on like this

You should get angry that you are being exposed to such conspiracy theories! Put down the internet! Goodness.

Tried to edit 'fact' out of the title as I am unsure if this is indeed a 'fact'.

Hoping someone can shed light on this.

How are you so sure this is just a 'conspiracy theory'?

If it's untrue why are the NASUWT teachers union petitioning the government about it?

I mean, it is illegal to put tyres in landfill as they are so toxic - so being shredded and put on playground would not prevent them from still being toxic.

It's the same material - in fact it's even broken down and therefore easy to contaminate the atmosphere and water.

Some of the concerns are very valid but jumping from ‘there are environmental concerns” to ‘our children are being poisoned’ is a bit dramatic.

The environmental issue is real particularly around microplastics and tyre crumb entering waterways which is why the EU will start phasing out these materials and why unions like the NASUWT are campaigning for alternatives. I’d be very surprised if we don’t follow suit.

And that’s exactly how these things should work, identify a potential problem, investigate it and take action where appropriate.

As for children’s health, my understanding is that there is currently no good evidence that it causes long term health problems.

It looks like the research is ongoing, but describing it as a “health bomb waiting to happen” is far more dramatic than the evidence justifies so far.

So yes, there’s a reason to improve but I don’t see a reason to panic.

I am more amazed you only came across the idea of microplastics in the water today.

It's the playground toxic leachates and chemical dust that is news to me - not microplastics.

. . . and also it's the fact that these are being openly promoted as a good surface for playgrounds, and currently being installed on such a huge scale nationwide, despite our knowledge about the dangers of microplastics.

Why continue doing something that we know is harmful?

Who is making money out of this?

edited for typo

I'm more annoyed about the little pellets all over the kitchen floor when DS takes his football boots and socks off.

I remember reading an article a while ago about this:
BBC story Lewis Maguire

It makes sense that used tyres contain all sorts of chemicals. They have this type of surface in the playground at Legoland and my children came away absolutely filthy, so I was reluctant to let them go in there again.

The chemical pollution from tyres is vastly more aggressive, toxic, and widespread when they are being used on a vehicle compared to when they are recycled into playground surfaces.

This was supposed to include an image!

I dont blame you op. With playgrounds being sprayed with glyphosate and plastic astroturf off-gassing noxious chemicals too. People prefer to be ignorant i think.

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Near me they are replacing a farm with a new astroturf. My local infants school replaced a tarmac play area for the Reception classes with plastic grass.

I don’t see why… children can benefit from leaning that falling over on hard ground hurts; that playing on muddy ground is slippery and messy.

Ironically we breathe a sign of relief that we save our kids from a skinned knee or a broken arm, but in exchange fill their worlds with cancerous toxins.

Thanks @Bingbangboo

I followed a few links from that report and it led me to the findings of a DEFRA report which concluded in May 2025 that 3G pitches do pose an environmental and health risk:

"Evidence suggests that when PFAS and microplastics are present together, they can produce greater toxic effects in invertebrates than either would on their own5, raising serious environmental and health concerns."

So I would say we really ought to be very concerned about this and question why on earth schools are still installing these pitches.

https://fidra.org.uk/news/pitches-new-plastics-report/

edited as double post by accident

Also all the plastic grass gardens

This is surely a giant leap backwards in environmental planning!

I am feeling really cross about this now.

Have any parents protested about this, or even tried to get it stopped?

On further investigation it's not a conspiracy theory at all. It has been investigated and verified by DEFRA as a serious environmental and health risk.

See above.

I agree that it’s infuriating and very very sad, we’re also being exposed to chemicals in our food: UPF and fertilizer, pesticides
why is there such prevalence in cancer in young people these days

What this chart doesn't explain is that water leaching through the playground surface is not going directly into wastewater roadside drainage - it is leaching into our groundwater reserves and into streams, rivers and ponds in the land around schools and sports facilities.

Read it carefully. Naswt is protesting about staff who may have to spend hours of every day in the environment not children who are much less exposed.

Also they are protesting 3G artificial sports pitches (where loose rubber pellets are spread across fake grass). This does apply to some of the older, loose-fill rubber mulch playgrounds as well if they start degrading.

However, modern, high-quality playground "wet pour" surfaces are typically bound firmly together with polyurethane resin, drastically limiting the release of loose dust unless the surface becomes severely weathered or degraded.

Basically the might be a small risk to staff spending 25 or more hours a week on one older form. There is minimal risk from maintained modern playgrounds.

But children could be on a 3G surface everyday from the age of 2 until adulthood. Every playground, every nursery, every primary, every secondary PLUS after school sports clubs, weekend matches or athletic event and school holidays at the pitch.

Exposed everyday for their entire childhood when the endocrine system is developing and hormones are affecting every aspect of their growth and development.

How is that more exposure than an adult teacher?

This form of construction is outdated. We are talking of around 5,000 in the whole country. We are not talking of every park and playground. Most of those that exist are athletic facilities. Unless your child is spending hours a day on the same pitch then the risk factors are small. Even for those teachers spending significant amounts of time the risk factors are small, just quite rightly We try to reduce all risk factors.

Most children will never stop foot on one of these facilities.

If you are worried check the the construction of one's near you. They are being phased out already what else do you want to happen?

Practically every playground, school and sports facility has a plastic crumb surface in my town.

My childs entire primary school playground was surfaced with this stuff when he was 5. He was on it every day for 6 years

The children are on them constantly.