LigaTurf Cross football turf has become an absolute model of success since it was launched on the market. The high demand it enjoys can be attributed to the special combination of smooth and textured synthetic turf fibres in a single system. Not only does this give the sports surface natural playing properties, but it is also robust and easy to maintain. For FSB 2019 in Cologne, Polytan has taken the turf another logical step further, adding the component of sustainability. The fibres of new LigaTurf Cross GT consist to 80 % of bio-based PE plastic. That, along with additional in-process measures, have made it the first carbon-neutral synthetic football turf in the world. The bio-based plastic used for new LigaTurf Cross GT is called I‘m green(TM) polyethylene and is manufactured by the Brazilian world market leader Braskem. It is extracted from sugar cane, a renewable raw material, far from the Amazon region. Another decisive environmental aspect for Polytan is that the sugar cane is cultivated first and foremost for the production of food: only the third pressing, which can no longer be used for table sugar, is used to manufacture the bioplastic.
Polytan is currently producing the fibres for LigaTurf Cross GT synthetic turf from I‘m green(TM) polyethylene – accounting for a share of up to 80 %. That ensures the optimum environmental balance, because this bio-based raw material allows more than 2 metric tons of CO2 to be saved for every ton of material that is used for the fibre filaments. Over a complete football pitch, this adds up to about 56 tons of CO2. This is the basis for the carbon-neutrality of the new LigaTurf Cross CT. It is ultimately achieved thanks to a whole raft of measures introduced by Polytan, including switching the entire production in Gefrath over to 100 % green electricity and optimising the manufacture of the back coating of the synthetic turf.
photo: Polytan GmbH
