How councils are weeding out chemicals
COUNCILS across the Dublin are experimenting with non-chemical weedkillers in public parks and playgrounds, after a massive $289million lawsuit in the US.
The Irish Daily Mail revealed last week that Dublin City Council last year used 3,000 litres of a weedkiller that sparked the lawsuit.
Councils here are now phasing out the weedkiller Roundup, which was at the centre of the US case, and other weedkillers that use the chemical glyphosate.
Now all four local authorities in Dublin are trialling alternative weedkillers, including a spray that uses vinegar, and a hot foam that doesn’t contain chemicals, but kills weeds.
Fingal County Council has stopped using glyphosate at the Millennium Park in Blanchardstown, as part of the experiment. ‘Bark mulch and chips, a by-product of our treereplacement operation, have been used successfully to keep control of weed growth,’ a statement from the council said, according to The Sunday Times.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, meanwhile, plans to use very little weedkiller from next year on. ‘Heretofore we sprayed around the bases of the trees, bases of walls, edges of shrubberies, around manholes and traffic signs in grassed areas – but from 2019 onwards, this will cease,’ the council said.
The trial is due to be reviewed by all four Dublin authorities next year.