About GrassWorx™

A photograph of downtown St Louis

From the 'Lou, and we're proud

Manufactured in St Louis, MO

There is something special about being a part of the local community. We are proudly a St. Louis based, employee-owned private company, that branched out on our own in 2009 after the purchase of the assets of the North American Plastic Products business from Solutia, Inc.

The original leadership team remains in place and many more on our team have been with us for over a decade. GrassWorx, LLC. is the proprietary manufacturer of a wide range of plastic products including the famous AstroTurf® branded products. 

Who is GrassWorx?

At GrassWorx, we are all driven by three things; nature, people and innovation. The intersection of these three is why we are different. Like our customers, we believe that better solutions to today’s challenges exist, we believe that “there has to be a better way”. We have found time and time again that nature can inspire these better solutions. 

As innovators we understand that we don’t have all of the answers and that we are going to make mistakes along the way – and we are OK with that. As long as we understand what happened and come up with a plan of action to not make that mistake again. Nature is humbling. Many of our products are designed to co-exist with nature. Along our journey we will continue to listen to nature and how our innovations will work with her to improve lives.

We design products that are safe, clean, quiet and green.  Our products draw from the qualities of grass, as well as products that move water, dampen impact noise and we design systems that allow the earth to thrive.

GrassWorx Mission

We learn from nature to improve lives.

We do this through the design and manufacture of proprietary products and technologies that mimic grass and the physical properties of grass. We use our inquisitive nature to find new solutions to existing industries based on the core products we produce. 

GrassWorx Values

When GrassWorx was formed in 2009, we established our core values. Over the years we have tweaked the language a little to reflect the times, but the values remain intact.

  • Safety First: We value working safely and watching out for others to do the same.

  • Team-based Innovation: We know we are stronger as a team than we are individually. We are liberal with ideas, fostering a culture of creativity.

  • Driven to be Better: We want to be better than we were yesterday, and we do so by learning from experience and being good stewards of our resources.

  • Future-Focused Manufacturing: We strive to improve our sustainability practices and reduce our ecological impact.

  • Accountability, Trust and Integrity: We do what we say we will and we trust each other, upholding integrity and using candor in all our interactions.

  • Expecting Success and Enjoying the Journey: We expect success and strive to have fun on our journey together.

  • Lean and Decisive: We operate lean, make decisive actions, and jealously guard our quality.

Our sustainability story

The paradox that exists for a plastic processor like GrassWorx to be “driven by nature” is not lost on us. We are mimicking many benefits of grass so that users can get the utility benefits. While we are born from Astro, we are dedicated to helping the earth. Simply stated, the GrassWorx portfolio of products and solutions are clean, green, safe, strong and quiet. Using our products helps to create a cleaner and healthier environment. We’re not perfect…but we’re working to get better everyday, and in every industry in which we choose to compete.

Sustainability

Over the past 5 years we’ve recycled 90% our internal waste streams. Further, 30% of our raw materials are wastes from other manufactures and sources. We’re proud of these improvements. When a storm took out our roof-based HVAC, we invested in Geothermal as a significant part of our heating and air-conditioning in our the offices at the plant. We also believe in being a good citizen of the community, we participate in power allocations partnership w/ utility provider, when asked to reduce power consumption, we oblige and adjust our manufacturing hours.

Recycle

While we have made progress in controlling our own wastes and reprocessing them, we still aspire to do more. Currently (update 2022), we recycle nearly 90% of our internal scrap and trim wastes. During peak periods of production, we often purchase several truckloads per month of post-industrial polymer wastes from other manufacturers to supplement our internal reprocessing. We’re very proud that one of our highest volume product lines exclusively uses recycled polyethylene and we haven’t needed to use virgin polymer for nearly a decade for these products. We will continue improving our use of reprocessed materials, however the practical reality is that we are often challenged to find meaningful quantity and quality to achieve both our customers’ expectaions of quality and a net-zero footprint. Technologies and partnerships are still favorably evolving for us; we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to continue the trend toward net-zero.

Geotherm

We recycle the sun’s summer energy 200 feet beneath our St. Louis plant. We punched 14 holes in the parking lot so we can take the sun’s energy out of our office spaces and bury the heat under the factory for our subsequent use in the winter. In St. Louis, there are almost exactly as many days above 72F as there are days below 72F. What’s remarkable is that our local climate seems to be perfect for balancing geothermal energy between summer and winter

Electric utility partnership

Some of our equipment uses meaningful amounts of power. We participate in the Ameren Electric Utility Industrial Demand-Response program, which means we participate in periodic mandatory shutdowns during high energy consumption periods. By participating in this voluntary program, we are doing our part to avoid building or recommissioning the next power plant in our area.

Biopolymer

It is our dream to make all of our products from biopolymers or other material to achieve net negative footprint, but at this moment we don’t know how. Somehow someway, we can get there but we’ll need help.

A note from our President

At GrassWorx, safety and environmental responsibility are at the heart of what we do. That may seem out of place from a plastic manufacturing company, so let me explain. All our products are free from harmful contaminants including lead, heavy metals, PHAs, PFAS, and other known carcinogens. Our products can safely be used around children, animals and plants. These things are important to us. We absolutely take our responsibilities seriously. We care about our environment. In fact, we care very much. Our families live here too. We're proud that 25% of our revenue comes from post-industrial recycled plastic, and we aim to increase that percentage while reducing our reliance on virgin materials. It's not as simple as just buying more recycled plastic; the challenge lies in ensuring our products remain durable and meet customer expectations. We're also exploring the use of biopolymers and bio-fillers in our products. While promising, these materials present additional challenges. We've seen both successes and setbacks across industries, so we’re moving forward cautiously, with an open mind and high standards. We believe there’s potential for these materials to play a role in our unique products in the future. At GrassWorx, we do things others don’t—because we can, and because it matters. While we meet safety standards, we know there’s more to achieve, and we’re committed to that ongoing journey. We’re still a work in progress, and that’s okay with us. We hope it’s okay with you, too.

Helping create a cleaner, healthier environment...

The GrassWorx tag line ‘learning from nature, improving lives,’ is a reflection of the passion we feel about the products we produce. We know that using our products will help create a cleaner, healthier environment.

GrassWorx supports the principles of the LEED program which encourages and accelerates the global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices on new and retrofit buildings. Through the LEED program, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) offers LEED Credit (Green Cleaning – Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control) designed to reduce the exposure of building occupants and maintenance personnel to potentially hazardous chemical, biological and particulate contaminants, that adversely affect air quality, human health, building finishes, building systems and the environment.

The LEED Program outlines that a ‘Green’ building should employ permanent entryway systems, such as grilles, grates or MATS to capture and hold dirt and particulates entering the building at all public entry points in order to prevent contamination of the building interior.

...And we're just getting started

We’ve come a long way over 50 years. We are proud to be living the American Dream by contributing to the St Louis region with our employee-owned business today. A consistent theme you’ll find in GrassWorx is the constant innovation. Sometimes that comes from our own employees, sometimes is it spurred on by others outside. Regardless of where the inspiration originates our great team of engineers and “big thinkers” are always excited to find new solutions to the challenges that exist in different industries. We look to nature to find different ways to create solutions…and then we use our manufacturing and marketing expertise to make commercially viable products. 

GrassWorx is going to look a lot different in a few years from what it looks like today, just like it looks different today from what it did a few years ago. We will continue to innovate, continue to surround ourselves with bright people and continue to challenge the way things have always been done. At GrassWorx, we are innovators…and we simply can’t stop ourselves from innovating again. We hope you’ll join our journey in one way or another.

Transparency in coverage:

UnitedHealthcare creates and publishes the machine-readable files on behalf of GrassWorx LLC. To access the machine-readable files, please click here:  https://transparency-in-coverage.uhc.com/