Perception of circularity challenged

The need for environmental foot printing is no longer disputed but accepted as ‘the way forward’.  At European level, the PEF tool has been established. However, a database on which datasets to use when going forward, is currently leaving the synthetic turf sector powerless to have PEF implemented. This, combined by a different view on the fine print for such system, made the authorities in the Netherlands decide to, for the time being, follow a slightly different path pending the official roll-out of the PEF-CR in Europe. In last year’ edition of this magazine, Rik van Kraaij of the Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO) explained that, in the absence of legal safeguards, all authorities in Netherlands that are involved in maintaining the quality and safety of sports infrastructure, had decided that suppliers of synthetic turf carpets, performance infill and shock pad should submit their Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)-data to a National Environmental Database (NMD) in the Netherlands. Here, the LCA is translated to a cost per square meter. All suppliers of these components are expected to do so before the 1^st of January 2027 in order to receive an appropriate tag for a classification system that will acknowledge the sustainability of entire synthetic turf top-layers that the authority in the Netherlands that governs the quality and safety and from 1 January 2027 on, the durability of synthetic turf systems for sports.