Sports venues | The end of crumb rubber is approaching – Helsinki is now experimenting with corn as a filler for artificial grass

Helsinki the city is experimenting with corn grits as artificial grass filler on two renewed artificial grass fields. The fields ordered from a Swedish field manufacturer were installed at the beginning of September in Myllypuro sports park and Pitäjänmäki sports field.

Project coordinator of the sports services of the City of Helsinki Oleg Jauhonen according to the first experiences and customer feedback from the new fields have been excellent.

“The big picture can’t be said after one month. Let’s see how winter affects the field. There are no such conditions on artificial grass as in Finland”, says Oleg Jauhonen on the new artificial grass field in Myllypuro.

In the old ones artificial grasses filled with crumb rubber have seven years of transition time left. After that, new artificial grasses filled with crumb rubber may not be installed in the EU area, and new infill material may not be brought to them.

The companies that manufacture artificial grass pitches, as well as the cities and clubs that maintain them, now have a race against time. Within the framework of the transition period, fillers made of organic material must be found for the fields.

According to Jauhonen, the city of Helsinki does not want new artificial grasses filled with crumb rubber at all because of their environmental impact.

“These fields are never ecological. We have been looking for a solution for recycling the fields.”

“Helsinki’s sports services have 50 fields and sports clubs have 30 fields. From each with rubber grit [kumirouhe luokitellaan mikromuoviksi] from the filled field, at least 500 kilos of crumb rubber is spread into the environment per year. It’s not about small amounts.”

The city hopes that the clubs would not install artificial turf filled with crumb rubber on their own fields anymore.

“We cannot determine how the clubs operate with their own fields. Unless we adopt tougher measures, such as raising the rent.”

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“These fields are never ecological. We have been looking for a solution for recycling the fields.”

GROUND RUBBER wood chips and cellulose-coated sand have previously been developed instead as fillers.

According to Jauhonen, customers have complained about sawdust fields when the filling material has stuck to clothes and skin like dust. In Helsinki, olive stone grits have also been tried as a filler.

The fields filled with corn grits are known to be the first of their kind in Finland. According to Jauhonen, the field ordered from abroad has also been tried to stimulate competition between manufacturers. Maize groat fields have the same eight-year warranty period as rubber groat fields.

Corn grits are more expensive than previous rubber grits. Myllypuro field with fences and installations cost about half a million euros.

“When the competition hopefully gets stronger, the price can drop.”

Corn grits a thin layer of fine-grained stone has been placed on top as weight. If the filling of the artificial grass was only corn grits, the filler could move along with the tires of the tractor used to lay the field.

Among the plastic straight threads of the artificial grass, there are also twisted threads, the purpose of which is to bind grit and prevent it from moving.

“Apparently it stays pretty well, because it is no longer visible on that artificial grass surface.”

Jauhonen shows how outside the field’s fences there are still signs of the old rubber gravel field. Finely divided black rubber crumb is here and there.

“These fields are never ecological. We have been looking for a solution for recycling the fields.”

Recycling is not simple when there are several different types of plastic in the field, all of which have their own melting temperature.

“What’s better in this field is that recyclability is simpler. In this field, efforts have been made to make it possible to separate materials more easily and recycle the field.”