These annonymous posts sure sound like they are a competitor that is fishing. He claims to be just a regular Joe but he has a lot of industry information such as costs from the manufacturer, profit margins, costs for labor. That certain goes towards his credibility.

If I were Trevor I certainly wouldn’t tell him trade secrets either! Its actually kind of ridiculous he is even asking for them!!

I’m just a blog reader asking questions- who I am is irrelevant and are you bothered by questions from competitors who have more knowledge than just the average consumer?

Actually, I looked up SYNLawn- they sell products made of 100% polyethylene like you described- SYNTipede is one for example- the material sells for $2.49 per sq. ft. Did you miss that? They also sell polyethylene and nylon products and 100% nylon products – they also mmanufacture them.

Maybe you did not get the memo from the Consumer Products Safety Commission stating that artificial turf is safe and that the claims about nylon or any other type of turf fiber having dangerous amounts of lead were simply false and based on incorrect testing methods.

By the way, most types of synthetic turf fibers contain some amount of encapsulated lead chromate- it’s safe and it is not lead- as in the lead in paint that is a concern on children’s toys. You can learn more about this at the web site of the synthetic turf council (www.syntheticturfcouncil.org) – I noticed your synlawn is a manufacturer member there too- didn’t see New Grass.

I think that your business model is interesting- it sounds like a great concept- I’m just a reader trying to understand it- so not sure why you wouldn’t explain it to the audience? Do you have a special way of materializing the money to fund this that is a proprietary secret that you don’t want others to know about? Or is it just that the question is really hard to answer in a way that won’t raise more difficult questions?

I mean, after all, it’s not an unreasonable question is it for a customer to ask how do you plan on paying for that recycling operation or for example, wouldn’t the home owner want to keep the recycling money (if there were any, which, by the way, you conveniently ignored- there is not at all today- correct?)

And to David- thanks for clarifying that you are not a site owned or operated by or sponsoring New Grass- I care about eco-issues and I consider it a public responsibility to identify “Green Washing” wherever possible and to ask questions when marketers put out information. I hope you don’t have a problem with that. The issues should be about the content and character of my questions and statements, not my name.

It is also important to note that Synlawn sells grass that contains nylon and in many cases their product is 100% nylon so it?s not surprising that he is trying to defend his product. NewGrass does not sell nylon based products because nylon is not recyclable. As well, nylon has been shown to contain unacceptably high levels of lead. Since it is not any more expensive or durable then polyethylene (contrary to his opinion) we don’t understand why Synlawn sells it either. It’s potentially hazardous to humans and animals so nylon products do not stand up to NewGrass? eco-friendly standards.

Ultimately we have had this conversation before on another blog (David I apologize for Anonymous’ crass use of your blog to attack a competitor) so if you want to read more you can check that out.

As for explaining our business model it?s pretty straight forward; we have manufacturers that produce our products, we sell it to consumers and then when they want to have it removed for recycling, we do it for them. You can learn more about it at our site NewGrass eco-friendly pledge. I am guessing Mr. Synlawn wants to know the specifics of our pledge so they can copy the business model so forgive me if I don?t explain the nuts and bolts in the comments of a blog.

Is that why you don’t use nylon? Not because it is more expensive? Or because it is more durable (last longer)or more resilient? And who told you it’s not recyclable? Are you quite sure about that?

But lot’s of companies sell (not make) (since you don’t really manufacture grass do you?) products out of polyethylene don’t they? You are not unique in that you buy grass made of polyethylene are you? Isn’t that rather common in fact?

Anyway, beyond that, I’d like to hear specifically how this recycling plan works.

You buy grass from a factory, then sell that grass for maybe something like $0.30 to $0.50 a foot gross profit to resellers who then sell it to end users and somehow 10 to 15 years later you have $0.50 to $1.50 a foot to pay to remove it and recycle it.

I’m sure the readers of this blog would like to know how that works.

Now, it’s odd, but if there will be this robust recycling market, wouldn’t the home owner choose to recycle their own lawn and make a little money on it?

This is all very fascinating.

Thank you for your concern. If fact, at NewGrass we have done the calculations and concluded that being able to recycle NewGrass at the end of its natural life is something that we can afford and that we feel we are obligated to do as a company. At NewGrass we are very eco-sensative. That is why we have a 100% recyclable product and do not use yarns like Nylon that are not recyclable.

We are the only artificial company that takes this extra step to be eco-friendly.