Plastic Grass

Artificial grass decorates the core of this piece of jewelry. It is made of synthetic, man-made fibers that are meant to look like real grass. It is used for sport applications, residential and commercial landscaping.See: “Artificial Grass Liquidators, What is artificial grass?”. In Hong Kong, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department has replaced real grass on some football fields with artificial grass, as it is more resistant to wear and tear and needs no treatment through pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers, which in turn lowers maintenance costs.

On the other hand, artificial grass covers the soil and contributes to the many natural surfaces already sealed by concrete and tar that cannot properly absorb water, let alone evaporate water to cool the city during hot summer months.See: South China Morning Post/Ernest Kao, Hong Kong's turf war: Heat given off by artificial pitches poses health risk to athletes and children, academic warns ; Apple Daily, GreenApple 球場真草變假草失調溫功 Despite its fresh green look, the plastic-made grass is environmentally unfriendly, because it consists of microplastics, tiny particles that enter the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe.See: The Guardian, Turf it out: is it time to say goodbye to artificial grass? Shirley Lam’s piece reframes a fragment of artificial grass as if it were a precious piece of nature, not a contaminant.