FormaTurf opens first artificial turf recycling plant in Germany. The new plant spans an area of 20,000 square meters In terms of capacity, FormaTurf plans to process 200 large pitches per year. Sport Group is the only company in the industry to cover the entire artificial turf value chain - from research, development and production to installation, maintenance and recycling by FormaTurf, thus effectively closing the loop. The technology used by FormaTurf enables almost 100 percent of a discarded artificial turf pitch ​ - turf carpet, sand and rubber granulate - to be separated and recycled. Mechanical and chemical recycling is used to process the waste materials into secondary raw materials. Sand accounts for around 70% of the weight of an artificial surface, so as much sand and infill as possible needs to be separated from the turf backing and filaments during the initial stage. The turf backing, including filaments, is shredded into millimetre-sized pieces and mixed with the separated infill material, a patented process called ‘aptrusion’ that allows for a sand content of up to 75%. Sport Group, a leading global supplier of sport surfaces, last year, together with its subsidiary Polytan, established a new company called Forma Turf GmbH, which aims to provide the German market with a better end-of-life solution in the form of materials recycling. Polytan is the leading installer of artificial grass in Germany. ​ #circulareconomynews​ #circulareconomy #recycling​ #waste #recyclingplant # artificialturf