Royal Grass® artificial grass recycling

Recycling artificial grass? Yes! That’s right! Indeed, artificial grass that is not recycled often ends up in the ever-growing plastic waste mountain or is illegally dumped abroad. Royal Grass® sees it as a big social responsibility not to make that plastic waste mountain even bigger. This is why Royal Grass® has set up the Take Back program whereby we have our Royal Grass® artificial grass recycled free of charge.

Royal Grass® has been 100% recyclable since 2003

Take Back program

As an artificial grass manufacturer, we were the first to set up a Take Back program in the Netherlands to collect obsolete Royal Grass® artificial grass and cutting waste. At some of our dealers, we placed a container to collect cutting waste and obsolete artificial grass.

How does the Take Back program work?
When your Royal Grass® lawn is due for replacement, you can drop off the outdated artificial grass at a artificial grass collection point at one of our dealers in the Netherlands or Belgium. Garden professionals can also hand in their cutting waste at an artificial grass collection point at one of our dealers. We then take the collected artificial grass to our cooperation partner GBN-AGR, a Dutch recycling specialist. They separate the sand and other dirt from the artificial grass and turn the artificial grass into new raw materials. These raw materials are then used to make new products.

 

Royal Grass® considers it a social responsibility to be able to warranty that obsolete artificial grass and cutting waste does not end up in the ever-growing waste mountain. 

How does artificial grass recycling work?

Royal Grass® artificial grass has been 100% recyclable since 2003. At the time, however, the recycling process was really complicated because the backing of our products had a black latex coating. To make the recycling process easier, we had a coating developed that is made of plastic just like the grass fibres and backing. Almost the entire Royal Grass® collection today consists of 100% made of plastic.  The two plastics that make up our products are: polypropylene and polyethylene. These are two types of plastic both with unique properties that complement each other. For example, polypropylene is a stiffer type of plastic that can withstand higher temperatures (important for the stability and volume of artificial grass). Polyethylene, on the other hand, is a softer plastic that is more susceptible to shrinkage at high temperatures (important for the soft and natural feel on the feet). Since these two plastics come from the same plastic family: “polyolefin”, they can both be converted to this feedstock. The raw material polyolefins can then be used again to produce new plastic products.