Stinky Falmouth beach seaweed recycling plan inches forward (From Falmouth Packet)

Stinky Falmouth beach seaweed recycling plan inches forward

2:20pm Monday 18th February 2013 in News

A solution to the problem of unsightly and smelly seaweed deposited by the tide on Falmouth’s main beaches is inching closer with it being agreed it should ideally be recycled within the local community.

Jolyon Sharpe, a countryside officer with Cornwall Council, attended a meeting of the Falmouth First Community Interest Company steering |group to address the issue and outlined some of the options available.

“If we treat it as waste, we have to dispose of it as waste which is extremely expensive,” said Mr Sharpe.

“We are looking at various ways we can use the seaweed as a valuable product. That could be achieved by direct land application or compost.

“We can change the spin on seaweed from something that is negative to something that is positive.

“We are looking initially at ways we can use it within the community but we need to look at how it is removed from the beach in the first place.”

Options for this include the public collecting it in bags, a farmer collecting it for use on the land and Cormac Solutions acting as a conduit for getting the seaweed from one place to another.

Councillor Steve Eva said: “We have a lot of land in Cornwall and it is a good fertiliser. Farmers will probably be happy to come and take it free of charge if they can spread it on their land.

“We should be re-using it. We do have to do something with it as we do attract holiday makers down here and we live in a world where everyone wants everything to be pristine.”

It was agreed that members of Falmouth’s beach management team should be invited to the next CIC steering group |meeting to discuss the issue further.