Press Release: LA Climate Reality Responds to LA City Council’s Artificial Turf Motion

Los Angeles, September 20, 2024  – On Tuesday, September 17, Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to direct City departments to study the costs, pollution, maintenance, dangerous heat island effect, biodiversity harms, lack of water capture, disposal challenges, and related health and liability impacts of artificial turf in the City.  Los Angeles Climate Reality Project applauds the Council for taking this step.  At the same time, we have serious concerns about language that was introduced at the last moment in the final motion at the urging of lobbyists from the artificial turf industry and fossil fuel interests.

For years, the City of Los Angeles and many of its residents have installed artificial turf in a well-meaning attempt to reduce water usage.  Unfortunately, covering our community with plastic has had negative impacts in multiple areas.  Artificial turf's inability to absorb water while contributing to the urban heat island effect has meant that its water reduction potential has been greatly overstated.  Please see our fact sheet on artificial turf for more about these problems and the Op/Ed from our chapter chair that was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times.

The City Council motion as passed has been modified to shift the emphasis from phasing out artificial turf to “regulating” it by applying "best practices" to reduce the numerous harms created by the product.  Requiring use of best practices when installing artificial turf is likely to have limited impact and will result in significant enforcement challenges.  Despite claims by the artificial turf industry, there is no evidence that it is possible to make artificial turf without the "forever chemicals" known as PFAS that pollute our ecosystem and drinking water supplies.  Setting a goal to "eventually eliminate the use of PFAS” in artificial turf, as this motion does, just gives the industry license to continue selling Angelenos a toxic product indefinitely.  

Of all common building products, artificial turf generates the greatest amount of heat island effect, exacerbating our climate crisis.  During the heatwave earlier this month when temperatures in the San Fernando Valley reached 105 - 110°F, surface temperatures for artificial turf in the same area were recorded at 186°F.

For these reasons, LA Climate Reality has advocated for Los Angeles to be a leader in climate stewardship and public health by banning all new installations of artificial turf.

Additionally, we object to the motion language calling for incentives for “California friendly” landscaping, which is a marketing term generally applied to non-native species, over specificity for California native plants.  Los Angeles, which is part of the most important biodiversity hot spot on the continent, is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. Fauna in Southern California evolved with plants native to the region, and drought tolerant native plants have a significant biodiversity advantage over non-native (so called "California friendly") plants. There is nothing friendly to Los Angeles about incentivizing exotic plants from elsewhere that fail to support biodiversity here.

Because the motion as passed Tuesday is a “report-back” from City departments, it could spawn no further action or even multiple ordinance motions on the topic.  What is clear is that this conflict over the logic of covering Los Angeles’ open spaces with plastic carpet is going to be long and hard-fought, and Los Angeles is arguably now the national battlefield for the issue as lobbyists put forth disinformation and fear.  We look forward to working with the City Council to put in place incentives for sustainable natural playing fields and ornamental landscaping with native plants, and to work towards an ordinance for the necessary ban on new artificial turf installations.