Is fake grass better than real grass for the environment? Eco-conscious homeowners with manicured lawns may well wonder if putting down the artificial stuff is the preferable choice for the environment than tending to the real thing. Synthetic grass requires less maintenance, which means less chemicals and less pollution from gas-powered mowers. But manufacturing the plastic grass creates CO2 as well. So which is greener?

Brendan Koerner, an eco-columnist for Slate.org says it depends on your lawn-care regimen, and also your geographic location. If you’re careless with fertilizer, heedlessly mow your lawn, or are trying to create a golf-course worth yard in the middle of the desert, fake grass might be the better bet.

There are several drawbacks to the real thing. First, they drink up a lot of water – 21,600 gallons per year on average. Second, one hour of mowing creates the same amount of pollution as driving a car 93 miles in a car. American homeowners use approximately 3 million metric tons of synthetic lawn fertilizer per year, which requires 11.8 million barrels of oil to create annually. Americans also use around 70 million pounds of pesticides and herbicides on their lawns every year.

On the plus side, real grass acts as a carbon offset. According to a 2005 NASA study, American lawns can absorb approximately 13.2 million pounds of CO2 per year. Still, the study also concurred that this carbon offsetting really just makes up for the CO2 created in producing the fertilizers and powering the mowers.

Fake grass doesn’t require watering or fertilizing, but the production of polyethylene, polymers and elastomeric coatings are energy intensive. And like most plastics, when its lifespan has expired, it ends up in the landfill. Canada’s Athena Institute calculated the carbon-producing effects of converting one school field from real to fake grass, and concluded that they would have to plant and maintain 1,861 trees for 10 years in order to make the field carbon neutral. Additionally, environmental activists claim that the rubber infill in certain types of fake grass can cause health problems if inhaled.

Slate’s advice? If you want to forego the watering and mowing, choose a quality product that will last 10 years or more. If you prefer the real thing, rethink your lawn care practices. Compost your clippings, replace your gas mower with a reel push model, and switch to organic fertilizers. at Eartheasy.com and learn more about natural lawn care, and reducing the impact of your green yard on your green living.

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