Artificial turf surfaces are a type of plastic carpet. When playing on the surfaces, the EPDM granulate (the material used for infilled artificial turf) and the synthetic grass fibres are exposed to repeated strain. The mechanical wear from higher tread loads – as created during football or rugby – causes tiny particles or blades of artificial grass to break off. This amounts to 250 to 300 kg per year for modern sports fields. These particles need to be prevented from entering the natural water cycle, and finally the food chain, via rainwater draining off the pitch. Research over the last few years has shown that microplastics, which are now present in large quantities in the world’s oceans, have also already entered our food chain. The health consequences are not yet known. In order to prevent water pollution, the plastic particles must be filtered out of the collected surface water before it is passed on.

Sportfix Clean Drain Filter

This SPORTFIX CLEAN channel filter functions on the principle of surface filtration. It is therefore twice as effective: not only plastic parts are retained on the filter surface, but also pollutants such as heavy metals and hydrocarbons. The system has been shown to work reliably over very long periods.

Long maintenance intervals and simple cleaning are additional benefits. After many years of use, filter cake forms on the surface of the filter. This is stripped off during maintenance and then only the filter substrate that has been removed is replenished.

Requirements

Drainage channels for artificial turf pitches have to

• offer reliable drainage and infiltration
• collect all infill material and broken artificial blades of grass (=microplastics) before water is led to a sewer system

Solutions

Therefore SPORTFIX CLEAN channels are suitable for runoff treatment from artificial turf pitches and:

• comply to German Standard DWA-A-178
• treat 93 % of the total annual runoff covering rainfall
  intensities up to 20 l/(s*ha)

Application areas

• Hockey pitches
• Football pitches
• Rugby pitches
• Leisure sports grounds made of artificial turf

Key Benefits

• effective solution for collecting microplastics from artificial turf pitches
• modular system for all demands and applications
• according to regulations of DWA (= German Association of Water)

SPORTFIX®CLEAN channels offer a simple but extraordi­narily simple solution. The channels safely collect not only surface water flowing off the sports field contaminated with microplastics, but also larger microplastic parts transported to and collected along the edge of the pitch during play. The water is collected and drained off in the channel run, while being fed through the channel filter and filtered at the same time.

SPORTFIX®CLEAN