To Compost or not to Compost That is the Question?
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
The Japanese Knotweed team recently attended an event aimed at the Contaminated Land Remediation Sector.
One of the speakers was Dr Helen Rawlinson the Market Development Manager of Envirolink Northwest. Dr Rawlinson gave a very interesting and informative talk on the positive benefits and novel applications of using compost in Brownfield Regeneration.
One of the questions raised at the end of the talk was how the use of ‘Green Bin’ waste in composting would separate out any contaminants such as Japanese Knotweed. Tests have shown that under typical compost conditions Japanese Knotweed does not rot down as would be expected - an additional heat source is required to encourage breakdown of cells.
There has been some success in putting Knotweed rhizome into a large ‘washing machine’ like contraption which heats the material thus encouraging the compost process - however this is only useable on small volumes of material.
I would express concern that Japanese Knotweed put into Green Bins could end up being unsuccessfully ‘composted’ then spread onto gardens/landscaped areas simply to re-grow at a later date!
Watch this space and watch what you put in your bin! It may also be advisable to watch where you buy your compost….
