Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

“A synthetic alternative to natural grass - it’s “beyond natural”.
http://www.synlawn.com/index.html

Yes folks, remember all those times you walked past the green indoor/outdoor carpet and thought “Heh, I should buy a roll of that and roll that out over the front lawn…” ??

Someone went the next step, and actually developed outdoor yard carpet, otherwise known as synthetic grass.

While not having to water, mow, or trim seems attractive, I wonder what the effect on the environment would be if we all bailed on natural grass for this stuff.  To install it you basically “round-up” your natural lawn, put down gravel and compact it.  Roll this stuff out, add some drain holes, add some sand for ballast and stake it down.

It’s a strange world we live in….

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Jack Stanback on February 11, 2005

   I guess you would rather spend 50% of our water resources on lawn watering and chemicals to fertilize the lawn + spend your spare time mowing your lawn rather than with your children….........not me….....if it’s good enough for football fields it’s good enough for my yard

2. Michael Boyink (Author) on February 11, 2005

   Thanks Jack.

   I was wondering when a rep from Synlawn would come a ‘calling….

   ;)

3. duane on June 28, 2005

   I was just wondering why this article is here?  What does artificia grass have to do with your site?

   ANyway, i looked at the site.  It makes sense.  I mean, my dad’s lawn has been somewhat green for about 10 years now.  I can’t remember when part of it wasn’t brown, bare, full of weed,s or suffering from gopher holes or the like.

   THe cost in So. Cal of watering is enormous and the best part is, in 20 years, I don’t think anyone has set foot on 80% of the front lawn!

   It never occurred to me what a terriblke waste of money and water that was to maintain a lawn that was never the way he wanted it.

   Anyway, interesting concept…

4. Michael Boyink (Author) on June 29, 2005

   This article is here because I ran across the site and found it interesting.  I often comment on things I find interesting that are outside of the internet world.

   (Although to relate this to internet development, this is a perfect example of why not to use Flash for your corporate website.  You found my article here because Synlawn’s Flash site doesn’t do well in search engines.  I notice that they now have a news weblog, so kudos to them.  Now just get rid of the Flash, and your site will rank high enough that people won’t find my snarky comments).

   It might well be that there are places where their product makes sense.  It just strikes me as odd that we can justify displacing a plant-based ecosystem, and covering up more of the earth’s surface with artificial coverings—all in the name of   protecting the environment.

   I wonder about the “hidden costs” of artificial turf from an environmental point of view - what else do you lose when you lose the real grass?  Does the soil quality suffer?  Does water percolation suffer?

   The assumption is that we only want something green and flat in front of our hosues—maybe it’s time to challenge that assumption and find natural alternatives to grass that don’t perpetuate a “paving over” of the earths surface in the name of aesthetics.

5. duane on June 29, 2005

   Interesting.  I am sort of new to the whole weblog thing.  I am also interested in internet development.

   I had done some research into the artificial grass and what I found interesting relates to what you brought up.

   Much of the commercial and even the private landscape projects are devoted to what they call “hardscape” because of water conservation issues.

   So they lose the greenery and put concrete over the ground to save water.  Apparently, a negative side effect is a loss of rain water absorption into the gorund soil. (in addition to a “concrete world”!

   Also, if you have been to Las Vegas or Phoneix, you will see these “xeroscape” concepts that quite frankly, in my view, look bizzare and almost “Martian” in some sense. Harsh, hot and let’s say, unfriendly.

   I looked at the weblog you mentioned on Synlawn’s site and there was some information about the product having some kind of positive environmental impact due to the manufacturing process.  Something to do with soybean oil and a decrease in some kind of polutant that would otherwise enter the atmoisphere.

   Also, it said something about the fact that it allows water to drain and filter into the ground soil very effectively, thus giving a green alternative to hardscape that also recaptures rain water into the soil.

   Did you see they had a picture of a city median in Los Angeles that used to be some hideous green asphalt color and now it is a maintenance free beautiful grass look?  I think that cities like Los Angeles could definitely benefit from more green in the more urban areas and less concrete and asphalt.

   I doubt that artificial turf will turn the world into a plastic or nylon coated globe, but it seems like it would help save a lot of wasted water.

   Anyway, thanks for the exchange, I enjoy this typoe of thing.  I never thought that I would start “blogging” through such an odd sequence of events!  Thanks to my Dad’s less-than-perfect-lawn!

6. Michael Boyink (Author) on June 29, 2005

   Here’s a prediction -

   Within the next week a Synlawn rep will add comments to this post..addressing all of the concerns noted and offering links for more information.

   (At least, if they are *truly* internet and blog savvy that’s what will happen…;)

7. Tim on July 24, 2005

   Hi Michael,

   I live in Las Vegas and was doing some research on Synlawn and I heard their corporate offices were raided by police because they did not have the proper permits and hence, were doing business illegally.  How would I confirm something like that?

8. Boyink on July 24, 2005

   Uh, you’re on your own with that one.

9. Thomas Hinton on August 24, 2006

   I’m a sales rep for SYNLawn in Las Vegas. Duane was very accurate, I would like to add something. 66% of our product is from renewable resources. Just like Duane had mentioned before, the backing for the grass is made from soybean oil versus petroleum based. The actual process of how the grass is made amazing. Our sub-based here in Nevada is granite fines compacted at 90%. That is from the earth therefore cannot harm the earth.
   Enjoy

10. Michael Boyink (Author) on August 24, 2006

    Hi Thomas -

    Thanks for the comment…sounds like interesting stuff.

    Not to be argumentative, but “That is from the earth therefore cannot harm the earth.” sounds neat, but isn’t quite accurate.

    The first thing that comes to mind is oil - you can certainly harm the earth by pulling a million gallons of crude from one spot on the earth and dumping it in another.  I’m sure there are many similar examples—it’s all a matter of context.

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