How to get rid of artificial grass

[jobnockey]

Hi all,
In process of buying a house at the moment which has a lovely sized and garden which I can't wait to get my hands on. HOWEVER, one area of it is covered with plastic grass. I passionately hate artificial grass and want to remove it immediately but feel like I need a plan before I start ripping it up on moving in day

Does anyone know what is going to be underneath it? Will I be able to seed the area, or should I try and splash out on turf? Should I wait until a specific time of the year to do this? It's a decent sized area , perhaps 4x5m.

Finally, what should I do with it? I feel conflicted about selling it (although the money would be useful) as I don't want to perpetuate the stuff, but on the other hand if someone is going to use it anyway, at least it saves it being produced and bought new again... Reusing is probably better than recycling right? Does it actually recycle, does anyone know? Would it have to go to a specialist place for recycling?

If anyone has dealt with a similar situation who can offer any words of wisdom that would be great.

I recently moved into a new build estate (renting) and every single garden is artificial added by the developers so it’s still being used.

I don’t hate it and it’s zero maintenance but if I owned the property I’d prefer turf I think.

It should lift quite easily and roll up like a carpet.
You would probably find someone would buy it if you advertised it locally rather than paying to dump it.

@Tessasanderson Not sure I said anything about it being green Just that if someone would like to keep a real lawn and the mowing aspect was putting them off, a robot mower exists and works pretty well! Not sure why I've got dragged into the argument you seem to be having with everyone else when I've not said anything negative!

@Tessasanderson , you don't have to justify why you have an environmentally unfriendly plastic covered lawn if you don't want to. Bit of a shame that you think it is ok to have it though. I've been picking plastic out of my garden. if your astroturf rots it will be a mess, and plastic does deteriorate.

We've ripped out ours and seeded with wildflowers, grass and chamomile.

We put compost on the sand first of course

I think influencers like mrs hinch have a lot to answer for here. She painted her house grey and ripped up her lawn and put down a plastic pretend one instead and it defintely made it a bit of a thing for a short period, and enhanced its popularity with some people sadly.

she’s moving away from plastic grass and grey now obviously, which is a good thing. I’m sure it will all be ripped out quietly in the background soon enough.

it would have been so much better if she’d just got advice and put a beautiful natural alternative to grass lawn in instead, there is so much she could have done, from a clover lawn, to beautiful flowering creeping thyme in the beds, that would have inspired so many people who don’t or can’t garden, or have issue growing grass.

Fortunately rhe fad is dying fast now, it’s embarrassing and a bit shameful to have plastic pretend grass, and people are doing what the op is doing, getting rid but face the same dilemma, what the heck do you do with it.

I just moved to a house with artificial grass and was fully prepared to get rid but after a decade of mowing an acre of lawn I'm finding it a blessed relief to have a carpeted outdoors and now wondering how to hoover it rather than get rid of it!

Adeleskirts

I think plastic grass has a life span of about twenty years, then it goes to landfill where sadly it will take about 450 years to decompose.
Didn't someone just win a prize for bacteria that "eats" plastic? You know, similar to the one used on oil spills at sea.

Yes I think so but it’s years away from being commercialised and they think the environmental impacts of it could be worse, although ultimately I think we will get there, we have no choice, there is soon going to be more plastic by weight than fish in our oceans and landfill over run with it.

people are concious of it, changing everything from no longer using single use plastic, aware of packaging etc, but metres and metres of plastic pretend grass just offsets the effort.

For anyone interested in natural alternatives to grass, this place was recommended on another thread, I bookmarked it as I want to replace the tiny patch of scrubby lawn out front but haven't done so yet.

www.tillersturf.co.uk/wildflower-turf

Good on you OP for wanting to remove such an abomination. I hope it’s fairly straightforward to undo the mess. Truly can not fathom why anyone would intentionally use plastic grass.

I agree that what is ostensibly a plastic rug isn’t the most nature or environmentally friendly option. However there are families and businesses for whom it’s the alternative to slabbing or concrete. There’s really no need for some of the comments on here. I assume it’s the same posters who recently called me a tree murderer for dropping a large, rotten and dangerous tree 🙄 some of you need to get off your high horses. The yelping just turns people off, it doesn’t make them see the error of their oh so terrible ways.

*carefullycourageous · 26/04/2022 19:00

I don't see any dissonance in having both astro turf and being concerned about insects, plants and the environment Well, there's none so blind as those who will not see... This is a completely mad comment.

Plastic grass looks shit and is completely shit for the environment.*

I don't have the black and white way of seeing the world that you have as I feel we have to make compromises all the time. Would it be "mad" to point out the dissonance in people who promote or use green/renewable energy to save the environment yet also know that each wind turbine uses one ton of rare earth minerals? Solar panels also use these minerals and China, which produces 82% of the world's rare earth minerals, has such lax HSE protocols that it is now contaminating the Yellow River which millions of people depend on. Electric car batteries use cobalt that is mined by six year old children in the Congo. Vegans and vegetarians know that some of the proteins they eat isn't grown in their back yard but imported, so we are talking air/sea miles and mining metals in the case of tinned products. What about the plastic coating used for tinned tomatoes? To not recognise that people can hold conflicting stances on a single issue is what is "mad". It's not either/or but compromising while trying to do what you can to help the environment. My bit of astro turf is less than 1/10 of the area in grass/moss in my garden and I intend to get more than the expected maximum life out of it through careful maintenance, plus I'm expecting that by then, bacteria will be commonly used to dispose of plastics.
So get out of fairyland and grow up!
Please note that I deliberately used a tone similar to yours. Yeh, I'm that petty.😉

Wow this has escalated since I last checked! Honestly didn't mean to starta fight. I think we all need to accept that some people have genuine reasons for wanting the convenience of a plastic lawn but we should also agree it is incredibly damaging to the environment. Comparing it to food we eat, or energy we consume is a bit weird as it's a lawn... we do really have a choice about that.

Anyway, back to my actual query @gogohm did you literally just put compost on top of the sand and then seed? I take it you can't have had all of the aggregate etc underneath too? Really hoping that's the case for us, sounds a bit back breaking otherwise!

@MigsandTiggs as long as you're enjoying yourself, use any tone you choose.

I think you're talking rollocks, obviously.

Are you suggesting there needs to be a crack team of mumsnet ninja activists climbing over peoples fences and sprinkling plastic eating bacteria on offending Astro turf! Count me in, except for the fence climbing, I can hold peoples handbags, and keep an eye out for hedgehogs and police cars.

I’ll do the fence climbing, I’m still quite nimble well my mind still thinks I am.

If the destruction of the planet isn’t enough of an incentive, they probably won’t care if someone on mumsnet thinks they’re a dickhead.

I agree (and had a good giggle at being called a smug tree murderer) but I see it as, for example, a person with limited mobility can look out at a grey concrete yard or get a little joy from a roll of green laid on top. If we all had plastic grass then that’s a different matter but if a handful of people have it I think we can find ways to deal with the fall out. I drive a diesel, I eat imported vegetables, my house runs on oil heating and a wood burner. I have quite a big garden with loads of trees and big shrubs, my lawn is full of little weeds and I have ‘wild’ patches round my garden. It’s swings and roundabouts. Maybe someone with a plastic lawn eats local food, doesn’t drive, never turns the heating on. None of us is perfect and we should be trying to help people to find ways to add nature if they can not resorting to hysterics (not you Pumper).

Are you suggesting there needs to be a crack team of mumsnet ninja activists climbing over peoples fences and sprinkling plastic eating bacteria on offending Astro turf! Count me in, except for the fence climbing, I can hold peoples handbags, and keep an eye out for hedgehogs and police cars.

😁

Disabilities duck. Hope you never need to fucking fathom it.

You could offer it to a local school or nursery - we're always on the look out for bits of artificial grass for small worlds or role play areas.

I also find it a bit odd to compare plastic grass to energy utilisation or food etc. totally agree with the op, it’s a lawn. No one needs plastic grass.

I really don’t see how anyone can argue they are concerned about the natural habit of wildlife in their garden whilst having a plastic lawn. And I can see the poster attempting to argue that they can hold both views is being spectacularly unsuccessful in their argument😀

If that’s aimed at me then I’d remind you it’s merely your opinion.

Im getting a little tired of the home knitted lentil MNers implying my eco credentials aren’t up to required standard. I chopped down a rotten tree and that was chased by a sanctimonious lynch mob. I state there’s a balance in life- which you didn’t like because it dents your own eco smugness and exposes your own weaknesses- I’m clearly unsuccessful.

My garden is pretty nature friendly, I’d hazard a guess more so than most on here- soon to be disputed no doubt by those who never actually garden and claim the overgrown mess is nature reserve - big difference between the 2 by the way.

Whether you like it or not, if you drive a car, eat imported food, or use fossil fuel heating etc then you’re not eco-perfect and in no position to lecture someone who uses (not once and briefly) a bit of plastic. Most plastic lawn seems to be breathable and water drains through it so that’s a great step on from a concrete yard, no?