At one point, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer ran into a problem that all municipalities face; what to do with old worn-out artificial grass pitches? Not very long ago, these pitches often ended up in landfills, where they slowly degraded and had a negative impact on the environment. Together, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer saw this as an opportunity for change and innovation; they partnered with us.
Thinking in solutions and thus contributing to a greener future is not (yet) a priority for every municipality. But the future does require us to be more frugal with our raw materials and to think green. The raw materials policy should be 50% circular by 2030 and even 100% circular by 2050. To make it as easy as possible for municipalities, we – together with our partners – are working every day to create sustainability awareness and develop new solutions made of recycled synthetic turf fibres.
The possibilities are increasing and awareness of the artificial grass waste problem is growing in more and more municipalities, including the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. This forerunner in the field of circularity went through the entire GreenMatter cycle; visualised in this video.
The cycle is as follows: from the artificial grass waste problem at v.v. Kagia to our processing partner Re-Match. After processing at Re-Match, we turn it into new products. Then the product – in this case edging boards – is placed by Athos Hekwerken along the fields at v.v. Kagia and the circle is complete again.
The video was made possible by Erik Pessel, manager sports fields of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer.