May 22, 2024
Santa Clara County Sustainability Commission
70 West Hedding Street
San Jose, CA 95110
Via email: bnc@cob.sccgov.org
RE: May 23, 2024 Sustainability Commission Meeting, Agenda Item 5: Consider recommendations relating to providing public comment on Board of Supervisors referral to Administration to report to the Board with options for consideration regarding an Ordinance to prohibit new installation of artificial turf and synthetic grass on Santa Clara County property.
Dear Santa Clara County Sustainability Commissioners,
On April 16th, 2024, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a referral to the Administration to report back to the Board with options to prohibit new installations of artificial turf and synthetic grass on Santa Clara County Property. The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, representing more than ten thousand supporters in Santa Clara County, is in strong support of the County establishing such prohibitions. Furthermore, we ask that the County consider not grandfathering projects which are not currently under contract with the County. Given the public health risks and environmental threats posed by artificial turf, projects such as the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Athletic Fields should be required by the County to avoid the use of artificial turf or synthetic grass.
Artificial turf is a mix of plastics with chemical additives covering acres of land, is a petroleum product that releases greenhouse gasses throughout its lifecycle, which can’t be sustainably recycled, creates urban heat islands, sheds plastic bits along with associated chemicals that are carried into our watersheds and Bay, and must be replaced every 8-10 years. Every Climate Action Plan should highlight actions for avoiding the unnecessary plastics lifecycle, including artificial turf.
In April 2024 the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a report titled Climate Impact of Primary Plastic Production for the U.S. Department of Energy. The Report "presents an analysis that estimates the GHG emissions from primary plastic production and highlights its significant impact on climate change ... The plastic industry’s current growth trajectory is exponential and plastic production is expected to double or triple by 2050”1.
The Guardian states, “By the middle of the century, global emissions from plastic production could triple to account for one-fifth of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget.” “The stunning new estimates from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ... provide yet more evidence that the plastic industry is ‘undermining the world’s efforts to address climate change”, said Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, which helped fund the new report”2.
Unfortunately, as YaleEnvironment360 reports, quoting Alexis Goldsmith from the nonprofit Beyond Plastics, " 'We can’t recycle our way out of the plastic-waste crisis,’ ... either by mechanical or chemical means. 'We need to require the world’s biggest plastic polluters to reduce the amount of plastic that they’re pumping into the market in the first place’ ”3.
Widely respected independent and nonprofit policy organizations, such as the PEW Charitable Trust and the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health study, have placed at the top of their recommendations4 5 mandates to reduce plastics pollution through actions such as avoiding the use of unnecessary plastics.
We call upon the Santa Clara County Sustainability Commissioners to include action(s) for preventing production and use of unnecessary plastic products, especially artificial turf which is an unnecessary plastic product that turns acres of arable land into soil deadening hardscape.
Sustainably yours,
Susan Hinton
Lead, Plastic Pollution Prevention Team
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
Attachment: Letter to Santa Clara County Supervisors, dated April 12, 2024
The graph on the following page comes from: https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/3/30/single-use-plastic-amp-alternatives.
1 https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/climate_and_plastic_report_final.pdf
2 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/18/plastic-production-emission-climate-crisis
3 https://e360.yale.edu/features/advanced-plastics-recycling-pyrolysis