Dumping car tyre waste on artificial grass pitches is 'polder crime'
Rewatch the full broadcast of Zembla here. Here you can find more info about a part of the programme, namely the report that environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk made to the Public Prosecution Service to stop this environmental pollution. This concerns large-scale environmental offences with waste car tyres, Recycling Netwerk claims in the report which is discussed in the […]
Watch the full broadcast of Zembla here.
Here you will find more info about a part of the programme, namely the report that environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk filed with the Public Prosecution Service to stop this environmental pollution.
This concerns large-scale environmental violations involving car tyre waste, Recycling Netwerk claims in the report featured in the Zembla broadcast. “Covering thousands of sports fields with many millions of kilos of shredded car tyres leads to the leaching of large quantities of zinc and various other environmental risks. That is not good recycling, but very bad recycling, and a violation of waste legislation. That is why we are taking legal action with the Public Prosecution Service”, explains Robbert van Duin, chairman of Recycling Netwerk, in the Zembla broadcast.
The so-called 'rubber crumbs' scattered on thousands of sports fields in the Netherlands are actually shredded car tyres, a few millimetres in size. Each car tyre contains about 1% zinc, and truck tyres even 2%.
“The total leaching on all those artificial turf pitches in the Netherlands is more than 10,000 kilos of zinc per year. When a drainage system is installed, part of the zinc remains in the upper lava layer. However, most of the zinc disappears into the soil, groundwater and surface water. In addition, the rubber crumbs also pose risks to the environment and health, for example because they are blown into verges and ditches and because of other environmentally harmful substances released from the rubber,” explains Robbert van Duin.
Responsibility
In the first place, a number of companies are responsible for these environmental violations: the companies that chose this type of waste treatment and the executing companies. They violate waste legislation and do not meet their statutory duty of care.
“In addition, we are suing the site owners and managers for failing to construct and manage the artificial turf pitches properly. And the municipalities and authorities responsible for monitoring and enforcement,” says the chairman of Recycling Netwerk, a coalition of environmental organisations in the Netherlands and Belgium, in the Zembla broadcast.
Video clip from Zembla:
Legislation
The large emission of zinc would be prohibited under the Soil Quality Decree, but that legislation only applies to stony material. Rubber crumbs are, of course, not stony. But the environmental damage is no less for it.
In fact, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) was already pointed out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in 2006 that zinc concentrations in surface water and groundwater exceed environmental quality criteria.
Despite this, the Ministry of VROM did not intervene. After poldering with the tyre industry, it limited itself to pointing out everyone's duty of care. Subsequently, several thousand artificial turf pitches were constructed using rubber crumbs on and under those pitches. In doing so, all kinds of car tyres were used, on all kinds of soils and with all kinds of drainage systems, without proper control on construction and management.
“There was a lot of poldering about this between the government and the tyre industry. The waste regulations were handily kept out of sight. The result now is that large quantities of zinc and other harmful substances end up in the soil and water. We call this polder crime,” says van Duin.
Environmental consequences of car tyre waste on artificial turf pitches
Processing old car tyres into rubber crumbs for sports fields is a prime example of bad recycling. It does not yield any environmental benefits, but precisely because of the fragmentation, all kinds of harmful substances enter the environment more quickly. Because there is more than just zinc leaching. Those rubber crumbs also spread to the environment: microparticles and nanoparticles are carried away by the wind, for example, or on shoes and clothing.
Video clip from Zembla:
Every year, the rubber crumbs have to be replenished. For the Netherlands as a whole, more than 500,000 kilos of car tyre waste are dumped on sports fields annually for this reason alone. That is dozens of full trucks a year. Those rubber crumbs lead to ecological damage around the pitches and end up in the food of animals. Part of it eventually washes into the sea, contributing to the plastic soup.
“As an environmental movement, we want environmental gains, and not as much recycling as possible at any cost. That is why we are committed to good recycling, and against bad recycling. The tyre industry is happy to be able to dump shredded old tyres on sports fields, and even get paid for it. But the risks of zinc leaching for the environment are high. Those rubber crumbs on sports fields are simply still waste. That is why governments must also treat it as waste. The goal of our legal report is achieved if this environm
Watch the full broadcast of Zembla here.
Here you will find more info about a part of the programme, namely the report that environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk filed with the Public Prosecution Service to stop this environmental pollution.
This concerns large-scale environmental violations involving car tyre waste, Recycling Netwerk claims in the report featured in the broadcast of Zembla. “Covering thousands of sports fields with millions of kilos of shredded car tyres leads to the leaching of large quantities of zinc and various other environmental risks. That is not good recycling, but very bad recycling, and a violation of waste legislation. That is why we are taking legal action with the Public Prosecution Service”, explains Robbert van Duin, chairman of Recycling Netwerk, in the broadcast of Zembla.
The so-called 'rubber crumbs' scattered on thousands of sports fields in the Netherlands are actually shredded car tyres, a few millimetres in size. Each car tyre contains about 1% zinc, and truck tyres even 2%.
“The total leaching on all those artificial turf pitches in the Netherlands is more than 10,000 kilos of zinc per year. When a drainage system is installed, part of the zinc remains in the upper lava layer. However, most of the zinc disappears into the soil, groundwater and surface water. In addition, the rubber crumbs also pose risks to the environment and health, for example because they are blown into verges and ditches and because of other environmentally harmful substances released from the rubber,” explains Robbert van Duin.
Responsibility
In the first place, a number of companies are responsible for these environmental violations: the companies that chose this type of waste treatment and the executing companies. They violate waste legislation and do not meet their statutory duty of care.
“In addition, we are suing the site owners and managers for failing to construct and manage the artificial turf pitches properly. And the municipalities and authorities responsible for monitoring and enforcement,” says the chairman of Recycling Netwerk, a coalition of environmental organisations in the Netherlands and Belgium, in the Zembla broadcast.
Legislation
The large emission of zinc would be prohibited under the Soil Quality Decree, but that legislation only applies to stony material. Rubber crumbs are, of course, not stony. But the environmental damage is no less for it.
In fact, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) was already pointed out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in 2006 that zinc concentrations in surface water and groundwater exceed environmental quality criteria.
Despite this, the Ministry of VROM did not intervene. After poldering with the tyre industry, it limited itself to pointing out everyone's duty of care. Subsequently, several thousand artificial turf pitches were constructed using rubber crumbs on and under those pitches. In doing so, all kinds of car tyres were used, on all kinds of soils and with all kinds of drainage systems, without proper control on construction and management.
“There was a lot of poldering about this between the government and the tyre industry. The waste regulations were handily kept out of sight. The result now is that large quantities of zinc and other harmful substances end up in the soil and water. We call this polder crime,” says van Duin.
Environmental consequences of car tyre waste on artificial turf pitches
Processing old car tyres into rubber crumbs for sports fields is a prime example of bad recycling. It does not yield any environmental benefits, but precisely because of the fragmentation, all kinds of harmful substances enter the environment more quickly. Because there is more than just zinc leaching. Those rubber crumbs also spread to the environment: microparticles and nanoparticles are carried away by the wind, for example, or on shoes and clothing.
Every year, the rubber crumbs have to be replenished. For the Netherlands as a whole, this alone requires more than 500,000 kilos of car tyre waste to be dumped on sports fields annually. That is dozens of full trucks a year. Those rubber crumbs lead to ecological damage around the pitches and end up in the food of animals. Part of it eventually washes into the sea, contributing to the plastic soup.
“As an environmental movement, we want environmental gains, and not as much recycling as possible at any cost. That is why we are committed to good recycling, and against bad recycling. The tyre industry is happy to be able to dump shredded old tyres on sports fields, and even get paid for it. But the risks of zinc leaching for the environment are high. Those rubber crumbs on sports fields are simply still waste. That is why governments must also treat it as waste. The goal of our legal report is achieved if this environmentally polluting practice is stopped,” concludes Robbert van Duin.
More information:
Robbert van Duin
Chairman Recycling Netwerk
robbertvanduin@recyclingnetwerk.org
Background
Professor Jan Tytgat, head of the toxicology department at KU Leuven (Belgium), advised municipalities to “avoid rubber crumbs and choose the safe alternative”. The Amsterdam football club Ajax has already decided to remove the rubber crumbs from its artificial turf pitches. The city of Sint-Truiden and the municipality of Houthalen-Helchteren in Belgian Limburg banned football on artificial turf pitches, and in the meantime, it has been decided to make almost 80% of the artificial turf pitches in Belgian Limburg ‘rubber-free’ as soon as possible.
See also: Zembla: Artificial turf timeline: What has happened since the first broadcast?
Update: Following the Zembla broadcast, there will be a debate in the European Parliament on the risks of rubber crumbs on and under artificial turf.
This page is automatically translated. A human review will follow soon.
