DIY Turf Blog

Saving Water with Synthetic Grass

 

Water is Necessary for Life: Saving Water with Synthetic Grass

environmental benefits of synthetic grassWe all know that water is essential for human life. Our basic health and ability to survive are absolutely dependent on it. It is also essential for food production, as well as many other economic and recreational purposes. Despite this, we are in the midst of a global crisis, where more than one billion people lack access to even a minimal supply of clean water. That being said, the average American family uses approximately 400 gallons of water per day. When expanded, our global water use is around 4 trillion cubic meters of fresh water per year. With all that being said, where does artificial turf come into play? Well, we all know about saving water with synthetic grass. But how much water do we actually save?

Water Use Sources

When it comes to water use, it’s very clear that the US is the biggest culprit. We use significantly more water per day than any other country, and while our residential water use is perplexingly high, our water use for irrigation is even greater. People don’t necessarily think about that as a contributing factor to their personal water consumption, but it’s true. Our water consumption is not just based on the water we use for drinking, showering, doing the laundry, and other household tasks. In fact, astronomical amounts of water are necessary to produce the food we eat.

For example, steak uses 15,400 liters of water for every 1 kilo. A cow needs 1,300 kgs of grains for 3 years before it can be slaughtered to produce 200 kgs of beef. Those grains require water to grow, the farm and slaughterhouse needs to be cleaned, the cow needs to drink – all of these adds up to 3,091,000 liters of water!

In some circles, this is called virtual water use – it is the water indirectly used to produce a certain product. Virtual water usage is far more insidious, because it’s never really seen by the end user. There are ways of reducing your virtual water use, but those are outside the scope of this article. Let’s look at residential outdoor water use.

How can getting synthetic grass help?

saving water with synthetic grassSo virtual water use aside, how can you start saving water with synthetic grass? Well, you can easily reduce your outdoor water use by installing artificial grass in the place of your natural lawn. You could go with xeriscaping or getting drought tolerant plants for your yard, but artificial grass is definitely what we recommend (obviously). Think about this: an 800-square-foot lawn needs 44,000 gallons of water per year to maintain a fresh, green appearance. This adds up to a almost 660,000 gallons over 15 years. That’s a lot of water being use for something purely aesthetic.

If you’re ready to switch over to artificial turf, call us today to learn all about the installation process!