Europes’s synthetic turf industry hits 25 million square meter per year target

25 August 2009 Inta Communication Ltd

The European Synthetic Turf Organisation (ESTO), which represents 90 per cent of the industry in Europe, announced today that its members had hit an important target as the annual installation rate passed 25 million square metres (2,500 hectares, or over 6,000 acres).

From small and specialised beginnings in the 1970s the European synthetic turf industry has grown into a business worth €1 billion annually, and employing 10,000 people. There are now 300 million square metres – 30,000 hectares or 74,000 acres – of synthetic turf in Europe.

In recent years synthetic turf has been specified increasingly in urban landscaping applications and at airports – because it does not support wildlife, such as birds, which can pose a threat to passenger safety. But its main use is in sports and leisure facilities: in Europe there are now more than 15,000 synthetic turf football pitches, over 1,000 hockey fields, 200 rugby pitches and 5,000 tennis courts.

Water conservation is an important factor in southern Europe: in Spain, for example, there are 2,000 synthetic turf soccer pitches, while France and Italy have 1,200 each.

Further north some of the benefits are different – avoiding waterlogging and mud. For example, there are 2,500 synthetic turf soccer pitches in Germany, 1,700 in the Netherlands, and 600 in the UK.

Common to all countries is the need for high usage: a synthetic turf facility will give 1,500 hours of playing time a year – five times as much as natural grass – while costing two or three times less to maintain and minimising environmental impact, with no need for pesticides and herbicides.

ESTO Secretary General Albert Prisse commented “If natural grass could meet all the demands we make of it, we wouldn’t need synthetic turf. But we have worked hard over the years to produce the high performance surfaces our customers need, and these technical advances have resulted in ratification by bodies such as FIFA and UEFA.

“In the current economic climate the medium-term return on investment generated by synthetic turf is helping to drive the industry forward.”

http://www.eu-syntheticturf.org