In Brittany, a synthetic football field filled with olive pits

In Guichen, near Rennes, the new synthetic football pitch will be filled with crushed olive pits.

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• In Guichen, near Rennes, a new synthetic football field is being finished.

• Instead of being filled with plastic balls, much criticized, the land will be filled with olive pits harvested in Aix-en-Provence.

• The municipality is advancing "an ecological choice" which is a little more expensive but has enabled it to apply for subsidies.

“I finished some matches with 500 grams in each sock”.

This amateur footballer may exaggerate, he is a reflection of reality.

On synthetic football fields, the plastic balls used for filling are less and less popular and are infiltrating everywhere.

In 2017, a survey by

magazine

mentioned the cancer risks associated with the use of these SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) beads.

Since then, manufacturers have tried to find solutions that are more environmentally friendly and less likely to affect the health of football players.

In Guichen, near Rennes, the municipality has opted for an innovative solution based on crushed olive pits.

They do not have the smell of Provence but they blend perfectly into the Breton landscape.

In recent days, the Guichen football club, with 500 licensees, has only eyes for its olive pits.

They have just completed the brand new synthetic pitch ordered by the municipality from Sport Initiatives.

“We need three kilos of olives per square meter.

For the SBR, it's 15 kg per square meter, ”explains Régis Paillard, one of the company's representatives.

According to him, the additional cost linked to the use of olive pits would be around 80,000 euros on a project invoiced for 940,000 euros including tax.

"But thanks to this technique, we received a subsidy of 120,000 euros by the State", argues the assistant to the works of the city Jean Lemoine.

"It's an ecological choice"

For the city, the use of this innovative technique is fully assumed.

“The club absolutely needed a synthetic pitch.

We were presented with several solutions and this one seemed better to us.

It's an ecological choice, ”assumes Mayor Dominique Delamarre.

Before dumping their tons of cores on the land, the designers had to backfill the old stabilized land and apply a “poured underlay” similar to what is found in children's play areas.

Two hundred tons of sand were then needed to allow the artificial turf to be laid.

Ball on the foot, club coach Gwenaël Corbin seems delighted.

“The sessions on stabilizers are not fun for the players.

With this technique, we will undoubtedly reassure parents who had fears about the plastic balls, ”said the coach.

Beyond the ecological aspect, it is above all comfort that takes precedence in the eyes of the coach of team 1, which has moved back to regional 1 after a season disrupted by the Covid.

“We have been asking for land for ten years.

For years, I have had to go to Goven (a neighboring town) to do the training.

We will relieve our lawn, it will be a comfort for everyone ”.

Each winter, the club had to play its matches away, for lack of offering a field in good condition.

In Guichen, the new synthetic field will be used "every day" promises the town hall.

It is for this reason that the municipality has opted for olive pits and not for cork, another ecological solution in vogue.

“Cork disperses more easily and that requires more maintenance when you play often,” explains Régis Paillard.

The Guichen synthetic field will cost the town hall around 7,000 euros per year for its maintenance.

Next to it, the very green grass used only for matches is estimated at 25,000 euros per year.

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