Weed-ripper being tested
Keyworth residents will be familiar with the problem of weeds growing in gutters and along the edges of pavements. Nottinghamshire County Council usually spray the weeds twice a year with glyphosate weedkiller, but this leaves plenty of time for the weeds to re-appear and for the complaints to re-start.
At the recent Waste Management conference, I saw a weed-ripper machine which could offer a new way of controlling weeds and moss on pavements and highways, and I arranged a demonstration for the County's Highways department.
The machine looks like a rotary lawn-mower, but with rotating brushes instead of a cutting blade. The brushes can be of steel or bristle, depending on the surface and the conditions.
A half-hour trial with the machine in the streets of Southwell showed it to be quiet and easy to use. It is effective in clearing moss (but the debris still has to be swept away), but more time-consuming than traditional spraying in getting rid of weeds. The machine is unlikely to be used in Nottinghamshire for weed removal unless a Government ban on chemical spraying is introduced, although it looks promising for moss removal
