Fake Grass

I highly despise fake grass, which is also known as artificial turf. It not only prevents natural plant growth, but it is actively harmful to the environment.

Prevents Plant Growth

This is probably the main reason why someone would get fake grass in the first place, which to me is a poor reason by itself. Let's assume someone had a really good reason why they didn't want plants growing in their yard. It's still an active choice to have fake grass installed versus other options - like covering your yard with river rocks. From a quick search on Home Depot, in 2025, a middle ground for the cost of materials and labor to install artificial turf is about $20 per square foot. Alternatively, I found a 10 cu.ft. pallette of river rocks, also from Home Depot, for about $360. Conservatively, this could cover about 30 sq.ft., which comes to about $12 per sq.ft without installation. The total cost with installation could come to about the same, but I would argue that this is something that you could do yourself. Additionally, it would be much easier to maintain rocks than having to continuously sweep and clean fake grass.

Actively pollutes the environment

Artificial turf is mostly made of synthetics, plastics, and rubber. The one saving grace is that some of the rubber may be manufactured from recycled tires. Needless to say, these materials aren't ones you'd want to be in your soil, water, food, or in your body. Unfortunately, as the artificial turf degrades, these micro-plastics can enter the soil, groundwater, or be inhaled by animals or humans who are near the turf. As rocks degrade, eventually they break down into smaller particles like sand which mix with the dirt and are still natural for the environment.

Climate Change

Earth is getting warmer. Even if you don't believe the thousands of sources out there, you can read about how plants keep themselves and their surroundings cool using a process called transpiration. Additionally, larger plants like trees can provide shade from the sun, which provides additional cooling. Fake grass does none of this. In fact, it actively does the opposite - from an artificial turf manufacturer's website, their fake grass stays about 10-30 degrees F (5-17 degrees C) hotter than regular grass.

Aesthetic

Opinion: Fake grass is an ugly eyesore that stands out in a bad way. However, I'll leave this excercise up to you, the reader. Let's assume you are extremely lazy but would like some greenery. Your options are to pay for a blazing green, plain, fake lawn or just do nothing. By doing nothing, you are passively helping the environment by allowing the natural plants of the region a chance to grow. They will be easier to maintain and may attract pollinators and other positive environmental influences. Not to mention it will look a lot prettier, even if it takes a while at first.

Conclusion

Fake grass is a scourge on society. What are your thoughts? What can be done about this?