The Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Grass

In an increasingly eco-conscious world, homeowners are more understanding about their effect on the environment. When it comes to your garden, you might be considering minimising maintenance by opting for a synthetic lawn, but is artificial grass good? It’s an open question, which requires a journey into the advantages and disadvantages of artificial grass to discover the long term effects.

This article will explain how fake lawns work and weigh up their pros and cons. It will then summarise the main arguments people use to help you conclude whether to go for synthetic turf. If you want to be environmentally friendly, there are some ways to get around the disadvantages of artificial grass.

Interested in an artificial lawn? Use our quote comparison tool to find out how much you’d pay. It only takes a minute.

Composition of Artificial Turf

Essentially, a fake lawn is a carpet of plastic that you lay outside. The fibres consist of nylon, polyethylene or polypropylene, which come with different levels of wear. It’s widely accepted that the more you pay, the longer you can expect it to last. For some, the disadvantages of artificial grass are simply a case of introducing more plastics to the environment. For others, you can essentially have a low maintenance lawn for over 10 years.

Beneath the grass is the backing, which holds it all together, followed by a shock absorbent layer and then the base. Synthetic turf is designed to be comfortable to walk and play on whilst still allowing for water to drain through. This makes it usable in all weathers and seasons.

The most common misconception is that all synthetic grass is bad. Low quality products are usually to blame for this. Having low grade turf is also more harmful to the environment, so it’s important to combat the disadvantages of artificial grass with the right information. They’re thin and sparse, which makes them wear down much more quickly.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Grass

We’ve outlined the pros and cons of artificial grass in the following section. The arguments for a fake lawn usually revolve around aesthetics and making life easier. The disadvantages of artificial grass focus more on the green credentials and wider costs.

Main Arguments for a Synthetic Lawn

If you ignore the disadvantages of artificial grass, the arguments for it can be quite appealing.

Aesthetics

For starters, a faux lawn will look aesthetically pleasing all year round. Artificial grass doesn’t need cutting or watering, staying consistent no matter the season. It’s a lazy person’s dream, but it can be particularly useful for people with holiday homes or the less physically able. Gardens can’t overgrow during any prolonged absence, and grass won’t turn brown or die throughout a heatwave.

This is one reason why Spain is overlooking the disadvantages of artificial grass and using it to combat drought. It’s also UV-stable, so won’t lose its colour over its lifetime.

Reduced Emissions

The strongest argument for artificial turf is in its lack of maintenance, but linked to this is a reduction in emissions. Non-electric lawnmowers and garden tools are incredibly polluting, with research suggesting using a petrol powered lawnmower for an hour produces the same amount of emissions as running a car for 100 miles.

This is one of the best counterarguments against the disadvantages of artificial grass. If you pay for a gardener, you could even save money that way.

Water Use

An artificial lawn can reduce your water bill by taking out the need for watering. You’ll see particular savings over having rolls of real turf fitted because this requires constant watering for the first 2–4 weeks. This means you won’t ever have to worry about a brown lawn or tracking mud into the house.

You can get around some of the disadvantages of artificial grass with proper drainage. A typical garden might have clay-rich soil, which holds the water and it can pool. Fake grass lawns have suitable drainage fitted to avoid this from happening.

Improvements

Some believe the disadvantages of artificial grass are to do with its appearance. In fact, quality products now exist that feel and look more like the real thing. Technology has improved massively since artificial turf was first introduced in the 1960s, so a plethora of styles, colours and textures are available.

You can even get softer and more cushioned varieties, which work even better for pets and children, even in play areas. Thanks to its construction, hay fever becomes less noticeable. You can even expect top grade synthetic grass to last 15–20 years, potentially making it cost effective too.

Environment

The weed membrane prevents weeds from appearing on synthetic turf, which also helps resist diseases typically associated with real grass. This is one reason why you might look over the disadvantages of artificial grass if you have a heavily shaded garden or outdoor space. You might not have the right conditions for natural turf to thrive.

Similarly, some manufacturers offer a recycling service for their products at the end of their life. You can simply return it to them for it to be reprocessed and reused. Others might use recyclable plastics to make this easier.

Main Problems With Artificial Grass

Despite the many benefits, it’s important to consider the disadvantages of artificial grass.

Water Cost

Freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce as the years go by, and it needs to be conserved. According to Water Wise, the manufacturing of a square metre of synthetic turf uses around 3,744 litres of water. To put this into perspective, you would use the same amount watering a real lawn over the course of 18 years, so it’s hard to ignore the disadvantages of artificial grass when it comes to the environment.

With so much water used in its construction, you’re not actually saving any water by choosing to have a fake lawn. You’d most likely use more water because you’d have to keep cleaning it. To add to the list of disadvantages of artificial grass, if the installation process hasn’t included proper drainage, the area could contribute to flooding.

Biodiversity Loss

One of the biggest disadvantages of artificial grass is its effect on biodiversity. Fitting a big plastic sheet across your garden cuts off an important area for wildlife. Worms can’t break the surface of the soil, which prevents essential nutrients from making their way into the ground. This would then feed bugs, snails, slugs and microscopic beings. Birds will also suffer as there won’t be any food for them.

A healthy lawn with real grass can be a natural carbon store. Healthy soil offsets emissions and you can use thoughtful planting to help sequester carbon. To reduce some of the guilt associated with the disadvantages of artificial grass, you could make use of flower pots, hanging baskets or keep flower beds. This will mitigate the effects and ensure essential pollinators also survive.

Plastics and Microplastics

Plastics introduce miniature particles to the environment as they wear down. By walking on and using artificial grass, you inadvertently scatter microplastics and nanoplastics. This demonstrates one of the very modern disadvantages of artificial grass. Small particles of plastic waste make their way into the soil, atmosphere and wildlife, presenting serious health concerns.

The other issue with the plastics used in synthetic turf is that they can be extremely difficult to recycle. Turf is often coupled with a sand infill, which contaminates the product when it comes to recycling. This means that modern methods are unable to efficiently process or repurpose it. To highlight more of the disadvantages of artificial grass, you will have to do your homework on companies that say they recycle it, as this won’t often be the case.

Escalating Costs

While cheaper synthetic grass is usually a sign that it won’t last, you can easily spend more on a fake lawn that looks like the real thing. The additional disadvantages of artificial grass come in the form of rising costs. Cheap options can cost £8 per square metre, while luxury artificial grass can cost £40/m² or more.

Not only this, but the ground needs to be in suitable condition first before installing artificial turf. You will have to pay for labour and possible excavation works to allow for a level area that can drain surface water away. The more work that needs to be done, the more you can expect your costs to rise. This makes the disadvantages of artificial grass affect not only the environment but your pocket as well.

Subjective Appeal

While supporters of artificial lawns will express how it looks clean, neat and tidy, others will only ever see a fake imitation that can never match the real thing. The disconnection from nature makes you lose out on the vital experience you get with real grass, such as an improvement in wellbeing.

One of the most obvious disadvantages of artificial grass is how joint lines across the surface can still be visible. These are difficult, time consuming and expensive to rectify, and will be hard to ignore once you’ve seen them.

In hot weather, fake grass can become extremely hot and painful to the touch. This makes it unusable, or you can cool it down by spraying it with water every now and again. With the added capabilities of providing friction burns, it becomes more objective whether you want to work around these disadvantages of artificial grass.

Why Choose Artificial Turf

When weighing up the pros and the cons of a fake lawn, it can come down to personal circumstances. It all depends on what sort of outside space you have. There are many different ideas for artificial grass use in UK gardens, which can include areas of hardscaping. In this instance, you aren’t really going to affect the biodiversity by introducing synthetic turf to it.

Despite all the disadvantages of artificial grass, there are plenty of workarounds or solutions to most of these problems. This gives you the freedom to choose what to do with your outside space in a responsible way.

If you’re still interested in fitting a faux lawn, why not click on the button below to find out how much you’d pay? You’ll receive tailored quotes from local installers for the best price.