Dutch Court Convicted a Municipality Over Rubber Granulate on Playing Fields. It Pollutes the Surroundings, but Measurements Show It Doesn't Endanger Players' Health

In mid-September, a court in Rotterdam convicted the Dutch municipality of Hengelo of an environmental offense committed by establishing and operating artificial turf pitches for two local football clubs. At issue was the rubber granulate used to fill such pitches to give them bounce. After the ruling, the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad asked what this means for the rest of the country: the Netherlands has more than two thousand artificial turf pitches, roughly 2,400 amateur clubs, and hundreds of municipalities. Algemeen Dagblad ↗

The Court Assessed the Soil, Not the Children on the Pitch

The ruling rests on soil protection, not the health of athletes. The Dutch national institute RIVM examined the two questions separately, with different results.

On health, it already concluded back in 2016 that the risk for those who play on such a pitch is practically negligible. According to the institute, harmful substances are present in the granulate, but they remain firmly bound within the rubber particles. As a result, only a negligible amount is released through inhalation, skin contact, or ingestion. At the time, the institute's calculations even accounted for a four-year-old child and a seven-year-old goalkeeper — those who are in the most contact with the granulate. RIVM ↗

The environment came out differently. RIVM explicitly notes that it did not measure the soil directly beneath the pitches — it took measurements in the soil and groundwater next to them, in the verges, and in the drainage water flowing into ditches. Several verges near the pitches were heavily contaminated with zinc and mineral oil, and moderately with cobalt. Other substances drained off into ditches and settled in sediment. According to the institute, zinc is not harmful to humans, but it does have consequences for organisms living in the soil and water. RIVM ↗

Not the First Such Ruling

The Rotterdam court had already dealt with rubber granulate back in December 2019. At that time it convicted Sportaal, an organization that manages sports facilities in neighboring Enschede, over the pitch of the Vogido club, and imposed a fine of ten thousand euros, half of it suspended. The complaint was filed by the environmental organization Recycling Netwerk Benelux. Rechtbank Rotterdam ↗ Zembla ↗

However, that was a first-instance ruling, and the convicted party did not accept it. Sportaal's lawyer, Rob Oude Breuil, said at the time that in his view the reasoning was too brief and that an appeals court should weigh in on the matter. He also predicted that more lawsuits would follow and that the prosecution had chosen the easiest case to start with. Oost ↗

Meanwhile, the matter also reached the highest administrative court. In April 2023, the Raad van State confirmed that the granulate harms the environment and ordered four municipalities to decide again on requests to enforce soil protection. This does not amount to a blanket ban — the court acknowledges that the granulate may still be used if the operator takes adequate protective measures. Fieldmanager ↗

What is new about the September ruling is who stood before the court. In 2019 it was an organization managing sports facilities; now it is a municipal government as such — which is precisely why Dutch media are asking how many other municipalities are in a similar situation. Algemeen Dagblad ↗

The European Rule Also Applies Here, But It Addresses Something Different

Rubber crumb from worn-out tires, known as SBR granulate, is a common infill for artificial turf on Slovak and Czech pitches as well. The Dutch ruling does not apply here and is based on the Dutch obligation to protect soil. Separately, however, there is a European rule: in 2023 the EU placed intentionally added microplastics under a restriction in the REACH regulation, and artificial turf infill falls under it. Official Journal of the EU ↗

For this specific item, the Commission set a transition period of eight years, so placing such infill on the market will not be banned until October 17, 2031. The reason was practical — so that as many existing pitches as possible could reach the natural end of their service life. At the same time, the regulation does not require pitches already laid to be dismantled or taken out of use. Official Journal of the EU ↗

This is precisely the gap that the Dutch case reveals. Selling the infill is legal until 2031, but that in itself says nothing about whether the operator is liable for granulate that spreads from the pitch into the surrounding area. In the Netherlands, the court answered that it is.

*Illustrative photo: A match between German amateur clubs SV Beuel 06 and SV Heimerzheim on the artificial turf of the Elbernstadion in Bonn. Author: Sir James / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.*