As part of an overall drive to improve the sustainability of its artificial lawn installations, Artificial Lawn Company has partnered with Let's Recycle Artificial Grass (LRAG), a specialist in the regeneration of waste artificial grass.
Under the agreement, LRAG will collect and recycle all old and discarded grass that the Artificial Lawn Company removes, as well as offcuts, roll ends and trimmings collected during installation.
After collection, LRAG will reprocess these waste grass products and turn them into a range of urban furniture products, such as park benches, flower boxes, stadium seating and edging boards.
Sam Baylis, surveyor and sales professional for Artificial Lawn Company, said: "This is the first step in a longer journey to ensuring that our artificial grass products satisfy the drive for greater sustainability.
"Fake grass has long had a negatively biased reputation for being detrimental to the environment, and as a company we have striven to pursue improvements in this area, focusing on product quality, processing requirements, and an empathetic use of the product in overall landscaping projects.
"The longer-term aim is to complete a full regeneration cycle, in which the grass waste is processed back into a recycled grass product, reducing the overall need for using virgin plastic. It is crucial that more and more of the key players in the industry work together to achieve this, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this drive."
Andrew Sampson, director of Let's Recycle Artificial Grass, added: "As a viable landscaping product, the use of artificial grass is only going to increase in the coming years. Indeed, projections indicate that by 2027 the industry will achieve sales of 20 million square metres annually.
"It is vital that the UK artificial grass industry comes together to create more stringent standards when it comes to sustainability. Partnering with like-minded companies such as Artificial Lawn Company will have a significant impact on the reduction of discarded grass waste in landfill."
Artificial Lawn Company says it has been proactive in ensuring that its products are used in a way that is ecologically sound; promoting a balanced approach to landscaping in which biodiversity can be integrated into the overall design.
The company recently launched a fully recyclable premium artificial grass product. The traditional latex backing of its Landscape PET lawn has been replaced with polypropylene to bring it in line with the top side grass pile, enabling the product to be lifted up and put straight into the recycling process without any additional costly and complicated steps.
Previously the backing was manufactured from latex, which meant that the grass had to be physically deconstructed - an energy intensive, costly and complex process.
Let's Recycle Artificial Grass operates a nationwide collection service. Its Nottingham-based recycling plant strips the waste grass down and re-processes the component parts into functional products.
