Is artificial turf bad for the environment? The Northern Colorado trade-off, both sides counted

01What does a watered bluegrass lawn cost the environment here?

Mostly water, and the water here travels a long way.

• Water. Fort Collins classes Kentucky bluegrass as a high-water grass, one that needs 10 or more gallons of supplemental water per square foot each season (City of Fort Collins). Statewide, cities and towns use less than 10% of Colorado’s water, but landscape watering is half or more of what they use (The Colorado Sun).
• Where it comes from. Many of the region’s towns get part of their water from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project: West Slope snowmelt sent through a tunnel under the Continental Divide to more than 1.1 million people in a region that gets only about 14.5 inches of precipitation a year (Northern Water). Northern Water set the 2026 quota at 0.8 acre-feet per unit (City of Greeley), and providers asked lawns to take less: Fort Collins declared a voluntary Water Shortage Watch asking residents to water lawns no more than 2 days a week (City of Fort Collins), and Johnstown’s Level 3 schedule ends outdoor watering on October 15 (Town of Johnstown).
• Mowing. Colorado’s health department estimates that, left unregulated, gas-powered lawn and garden equipment would produce about 11% of the emissions that form ground-level ozone in the northern Front Range in 2026 (CDPHE). The state already keeps government crews’ small gas equipment parked from June 1 to August 31, and in November 2026 its Air Quality Control Commission considers extending that rule to commercial lawn equipment.
• Fertilizer and weed killer. CSU Extension’s schedule for a high-maintenance bluegrass lawn calls for nitrogen four times a year, usually about a pound per 1,000 square feet each time (CMG GardenNotes #551). CSU puts the blame for lawn water pollution on how a lawn is managed, not on the lawn itself: fertilizer and pesticides that land on driveways and streets wash down the gutter into lakes and streams, untreated.

A lawn gives something back, too. Researchers at Colorado State University and the USDA in Fort Collins found that soil under Front Range golf-course turfgrass kept storing carbon for decades, fastest in the first 25 to 30 years (Agronomy Journal). Fairways aren’t backyards, though, and a Southern California study found the other side of the ledger: fertilized turf gives off nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas about 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide, and with the fuel, fertilizer and irrigation behind turf care counted, the carbon it stores can’t offset a city’s emissions (Geophysical Research Letters).

02What does artificial turf cost the environment?

It saves the irrigation water, and that is the main reason manufacturers promote it as green, according to California’s toxics regulator (DTSC). The costs show up elsewhere.

• It is plastic. The blades are polyethylene, polypropylene or nylon fibers tufted or woven into a backing (DTSC).
• Heat. A 2024 systematic review found synthetic grass surfaces consistently hotter than natural grass, by 17 to 61°F across the studies it covered, and the air just above them about 1 to 2°F warmer (International Journal of Biometeorology). Our guide to how hot artificial turf gets has the Northern Colorado summer numbers.
• Microplastics. Blades and backing break down into microplastics with weather and wear, and in most California cities stormwater carries them into rivers and lakes untreated (DTSC).
• PFAS. Colorado has barred installing artificial turf with intentionally added PFAS since January 1, 2026 (SB24-081). What the ban leaves open is in our guide to whether artificial turf is toxic.
• The end of its life. Only 10% of the world’s worn-out artificial turf was recycled in 2021, and landfill is where it most often goes (DTSC). Larimer County’s disposal list has no entry for turf at all; the nearest thing, carpet, goes to the Central Diversion and Transfer Station or the North Landfill (Larimer County). See getting rid of old artificial turf.
• A little water after all. Pet areas still get rinsed; do you have to water artificial turf covers how much.

03Why did Fort Collins push back on artificial turf?

Its advisory board and City Council raised the environmental costs while the city rewrote its landscape rules.

• On December 15, 2022, the Natural Resource Advisory Board did not support synthetic turf and asked for more research on how it affects the environment (City of Fort Collins).
• On January 10, 2023, City Council did not support it either, citing the potential for PFAS to leach into the city’s waterways.
• In October 2023, The Colorado Sun reported that Fort Collins and other cities were studying bans on installing turf, and listed the concerns behind them: PFAS shedding in runoff, urban heat islands and a lack of recycling options (The Colorado Sun).

The rewrite took effect February 14, 2025: Fort Collins’ Land Use Code keeps artificial turf out of landscape plans for development, though work on existing single- and two-unit home lots is exempt (Ordinance No. 008, 2025). The city code also defines xeriscape so that it excludes artificial turf (Sec. 12-120); our guide to whether artificial turf counts as xeriscape explains what that changes.

The state counted both sides. Not legal advice: in its 2024 turf law, the legislature found that many communities overuse nonnative grass that takes large amounts of water, and that artificial turf can worsen heat islands and release plastics, microplastics and PFAS into watersheds (C.R.S. 37-99-101). Since January 1, 2026, that law, as amended in 2025, keeps nonfunctional artificial turf out of new development and redevelopment on the property types it covers (HB25-1113). Each town’s own rules are in our guide to turf rules in Northern Colorado.

04Why won’t Northern Colorado rebates pay for turf?

Because the programs pay for living plants, not only for using less water.

• State turf-replacement grant money may not be used to replace a lawn with artificial turf (C.R.S. 37-60-135).
• Windsor, Johnstown and Frederick each say it plainly in their lawn-replacement rebate rules: “Artificial Turf is not eligible for this rebate” (Windsor, Johnstown, Frederick).
• Resource Central’s lawn-replacement program, offered through Fort Collins Utilities and several other providers, requires the new area to be at least 50% waterwise plants (Resource Central).

Fort Collins lists what healthy, diverse landscapes do for the environment: shade that cuts the heat island effect, cleaner air, wildlife habitat, and erosion and stormwater control (City of Fort Collins). A plastic surface offers none of the shade or habitat. Every program’s terms are in our guide to turf rebates in Northern Colorado.

05When is turf the lower-impact choice, and when isn’t it?

It depends on what the space has to do. Turf earns its plastic where a surface has to take traffic that grass can’t survive without heavy watering. It is the worse trade where nobody walks.

If turf is the right call for part of the yard, ask the installer about these before you sign:

• The product’s PFAS documentation. A good answer is the maker’s test report for that product, not a line in a brochure.
• The infill. A good answer names the material and whether it is crumb rubber; the options are in our guide to infill types.
• The old lawn now and the turf at the end. A good answer says where the sod goes on install day and where this turf can go when it wears out, not just that it is recyclable.