Polluting rubber granulate is sold freely to private individuals

Concerned parents, united in the foundation 'Kom van dat gras af' ('Get off that grass'), discovered that various websites shamelessly offer rubber granulate. Research by the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) showed that this rubber granulate on sports fields causes environmental pollution. When sold to private individuals, the risks of pollution are therefore even greater.

Municipalities that use rubber granulate on sports fields are expected to take a whole series of precautionary measures. These are laid down in the Care Document (Zorgdocument). Despite this, the granulate on sports fields pollutes the environment. The standards of the Soil Quality Decree (Besluit Bodemkwaliteit) were exceeded in no fewer than 9 out of 10 sports fields investigated, RIVM research established in July.

When selling to private individuals, the criteria in the Care Document are not discussed. In fact, the selling websites promote the material as being "environmentally friendly and sustainable". This rubber granulate therefore risks being scattered without precautionary measures, and thus causing even more environmental damage.

Although plastics smaller than 5 mm fall under the definition of microplastics, rubber granulate of 0.5-2 mm could be purchased on consumer website ZwartGroen without any accompanying warnings (see example invoice).

In addition to the leaching of hazardous substances, such a product by definition causes contamination by microplastics in the gardens of unwitting consumers. For example, if they wanted to sell their house and had to present a clean soil certificate, this would become problematic.

Recycling Netwerk Benelux: “This is particularly worrying. The RIVM research concerned artificial turf pitches laid under the supervision of municipalities. And even those artificial turf pitches show major problems for the environment. While in principle they must follow the precautionary measures of the Care Document drawn up by the tyre industry to prevent environmental damage. When scattered on pitches and gardens by private individuals, you have to fear the worst for the surrounding and underlying soil. Especially because the selling parties do not communicate any precautionary measures to prevent environmental damage. The rubber crumbs are even sold as being environmentally friendly”.

On the sites of those companies, the origin of the offered rubber granulate is unknown, let alone the chemical components contained in it.

With a few mouse clicks, an order of rubber granulate can easily be made. That rubber granulate is also very fine, 0.5 to 2 millimetres in size. The definition of microplastics is anything smaller than 5 millimetres. “So what we have here is that a portion of extremely polluting microplastics can simply be ordered on a Dutch website. And the government does nothing,” says Recycling Netwerk

Recycling Netwerk explicitly raised the "free sale" of bags of rubber granulate last year in the first enforcement request. Attention was also explicitly drawn to this in the pleading notes at the August 2017 hearing (see the last point).

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“The government must work on a moratorium on the sale of shredded car tyres for scattering on artificial turf pitches. For private use, but also for use by public authorities. It is clear that there is no control over the various applications and therefore the environmental damage,” says the environmental organisation.

“Those car tyres are simply waste. Producers do nothing to extract harmful substances from the material. Shredding it just puts a new label on it. But it remains waste dump that is harmful to the living environment. It is beyond belief that this can be sold freely in the Netherlands,” the environmental organisation concludes.

Environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk previously requested the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) to enforce regulations, also on the free sale to consumers.

A few examples of how misleading the sale of rubber granulate and crumbs to consumers is presented:

Zwartgroen

Totalflooring

Paardenbakbodem.nl

Notification to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA)

Order confirmation of rubber granulate

Concerned parents, united in the foundation 'Kom van dat gras af', discovered that various websites shamelessly offer rubber granulate. Research by the RIVM showed that this rubber granulate on sports fields causes environmental pollution. When sold to private individuals, the risks of pollution are therefore even greater.

The previous paragraph with ID 21 is repeated in the original text, but translated again here for consistency.

Municipalities that use rubber granulate on sports fields are expected to take a whole series of precautionary measures. These are laid down in the Care Document. Despite this, the granulate on sports fields pollutes the environment. The standards of the Soil Quality Decree were exceeded in no fewer than 9 out of 10 sports fields investigated, research by the RIVM established in July.

When selling to private individuals, the criteria in the Care Document are not discussed. In fact, the selling websites promote the material as being "environmentally friendly and sustainable". This rubber granulate therefore risks being scattered without precautionary measures, and thus causing even more environmental damage.

Although plastics smaller than 5 mm fall under the definition of microplastics, rubber granulate of 0.5-2 mm could be purchased on consumer website ZwartGroen without any accompanying warnings (see example of invoice).

In addition to the leaching of hazardous substances, such a product by definition causes contamination by microplastics in the gardens of unwitting consumers. For example, if they wanted to sell their house and had to present a clean soil certificate, this would become problematic.

Recycling Netwerk Benelux: “This is particularly worrying. The RIVM research concerned artificial turf pitches laid under the supervision of municipalities. And even those artificial turf pitches show major problems for the environment. While in principle they must follow the precautionary measures of the Care Document drawn up by the tyre industry to prevent environmental damage. When scattered on pitches and gardens by private individuals, you have to fear the worst for the surrounding and underlying soil. Especially because the selling parties do not communicate any precautionary measures to prevent environmental damage. The rubber crumbs are even sold as being environmentally friendly”.

On the sites of those companies, the origin of the offered rubber granulate is unknown, let alone the chemical components contained in it.

With a few mouse clicks, an order of rubber granulate can easily be made. That rubber granulate is also very fine, 0.5 to 2 millimetres in size. The definition of microplastics is anything smaller than 5 millimetres. “So what we have here is that a portion of extremely polluting microplastics can simply be ordered on a Dutch website. And the government does nothing,” says Recycling Netwerk

Recycling Netwerk explicitly raised the "free sale" of bags of rubber granulate last year in the first enforcement request. Attention was also explicitly drawn to this in the pleading notes at the August 2017 hearing (see the last point).

.

“The government must work on a moratorium on the sale of shredded car tyres for scattering on artificial turf pitches. For private use, but also for use by public authorities. It is clear that there is no control over the various applications and therefore the environmental damage,” says the environmental organisation.

“Those car tyres are simply waste. Producers do nothing to extract harmful substances from the material. Shredding it just puts a new label on it. But it remains waste dump that is harmful to the living environment. It is beyond belief that this can be sold freely in the Netherlands,” the environmental organisation concludes.

Environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk previously requested the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) to enforce regulations, also on the free sale to consumers.

A few examples of how misleading the sale of rubber granulate and crumbs to consumers is presented:

Zwartgroen

Totalflooring

Paardenbakbodem.nl

Notification to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA)

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