WATCH: Some Vancouver residents are surprised to find “fake lawn” along their streets. Jennifer Palma reports.
Vancouver has a long-standing reputation for being a green city, but it turns out some of that green is of the artificial variety.
In some neighbourhoods the choice is plastic, with artificial turf being installed along some city boulevards.
Synthetic lawns are becoming more popular around the Lower Mainland, offering easy upkeep, year-round green colour and a solution to battling moles, chafer beetles, and the effects of animals relieving themselves.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Paul Gabrlik from Precision Greens. “Nobody has to worry about the ugly grass outside anymore, there’s no smell, there’s no maintenance costs involved.”
But it’s not just stratas and residents that are making the change. The city is also looking at cost effective alternatives to upkeeping grass, concrete and asphalt, like using recycled rubber mats, costing about $200 per square meter.
“We use it in situations where there are tree roots,”said Taryn Scollard, director of streets for the City of Vancouver. “Instead of a tree popping up and ruining the asphalt or the concrete, we are able, with those mats to pull it up and regrade it and set it down again.”
One of the main concerns over the synthetic lawns and rubber mats is about the potential odour that may be left behind after an animal relieves itself. So far the city says it has not had any complaints, however, another worry is the environmental impact.
“There’s no runoff or anything involved from any of the products,” said Gabrlik. “There’s no fertilizers at all, which have been known to leak into the water systems.”
And while some may think the city loses some charm from going to plastic, everyone Global News spoke with agreed it is nice to see a perfect green lawn year-round.
– With files from Jennifer Palma.
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