Possible EU ban on plastic granules worries amateur clubs

The decision came spontaneously. The material used on the new artificial grass pitch of BV Wevelinghoven will be cork, not plastic granules. Instead of plastics, 10 tons of cork have been ordered.

"We were just in the decision-making phase," Stephan Renner, a press spokesman for the city of Grevenbroich, near Düsseldorf in western Germany, told DW. "Now we're definitely on the safe side."

The genesis of the change can be traced back to a letter from the government of North Rhine-Westphalia, the state in which Grevenbroich lies, sent in early May. In it, municipalities were informed that the European Union (EU), in the shape of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), is currently looking in to a ban on the use of plastic granules on artificial turf, based upon the fact that the tiny particles are blown away by the wind and pollute the air. A ban could come into force as soon as 2021.

The (footballing) nation is alarmed

Although a spokeswoman for the EU Commission announced on Tuesday that a general ban on artificial pitches was not on the table, a ban on the use of commonly used granules could well be applied retrospectively.

"That startled us, and we're watching it with great concern," said Renner, whose remit includes the care of several other pitches that use granules. "It would cost us at least €1.2 million ($1.3 million) so we're calling for transitional periods to replace the material as part of the usual refurbishment and maintenance deadlines."

The sense of alarm isn't only present in Grevenbroich. Across the EU, small clubs are wrestling with the question of how they would be able to afford the potential changes required to make their facilities conform to new EU norms.

Ban still far from a sure thing

"Whether the EU Commission will introduce the ban on plastic litter material for artificial sports pitches is still far from certain," said a spokesman for German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze in an attempt to soothe concerns. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants a transitional period of six years.

Tobias Müller struggles to understand the discussion. The press spokesman for Polytan, a major manufacturer of artificial pitches, is annoyed about a micro-plastics study published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology, which is central to the current debate.

"Of course there is a certain amount of discharge," he told DW. "But this [the study] is being publicized with far too much commotion."

Study figures questioned

Müller argues that the authors of the paper have used data from older studies and other European countries that use more granules than Germany. The Fraunhofer Institute expects surfaces to have around 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of granules per square meter (10.7 square feet) but the most recently installed pitches use only 1.7 kilograms. Accordingly, much less is discharged into the environment. He added that much of the mass that is present isn't blown into the air, but gets removed by street sweepers or in the course of maintenance operations.

In recent years, the granules have changed in nature and composition – from shredded car tires made of pure plastic to a mix of 70 percent hemp or chalk and 30 percent synthetic rubber.

"The black granules are only used at the request of a customer and only very rarely. Often when that happens, it's abroad," Müller said.

His company is currently working on developing a wholly organic alternative.

The Frauenhofer Institute has also admitted there is not a huge amount of experimental data on the "quantification of micro-plastic emissions." Thus their study worked with estimates and "non-absolute numbers also based on data from abroad". They are currently running follow up tests.

Low health risk

However, the health risks associated with the granules are actually relatively low in the first place. Biochemist Annegret Biegel-Engler, head of the Soil Protection department at Germany's Federal Environment Agency stated in a recent article that an ECHA study had determined that the health impact of the use of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) granules on pitches was minor.

Still, Nadja Ziebarth of the Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) advocates banning the material from football fields.

"The point is that the granules are the fifth largest source of micro plastics," she said, before adding that nobody from her organization wants to see the death of football clubs.

As such, she believes the SBR granules should be gradually replaced by environmentally friendly materials during a transitional period.

"After all, in addition to the necessary discussion about micro plastics, many other factors, such as social and economic components, play an important social role," the environmentalist said.