Wild flowers at a roadside verge reserve
Grassification
About Grassification
A house built with fibres from roadside grass. Durable, inexpensive energy from roadside grass. More sustainable and cheaper roadside management. Science fiction? Dream?
Grassification is a European subsidized project investigating the possibilities of these 'dreams' and more as economically profitable business cases. Research institutes, landscape managers and companies are all taking part.
Over a three-year period, Kent Wildlife Trust along with 23 partners from the UK, the Netherlands, France and Belgium will be taking part in this exciting research. Partners will jointly examine the journey from roadside management to final manufactured products, in the process creating a business case for a circular green economy using verge clippings.
In this way, we hope to stimulate a new, land circular economy based on roadside grass.
What we hope to achieve
Kent Wildlife Trust would like to use the Grassification project as an opportunity to undertake the following activities:
- Test new methods of cut and collection of road verge vegetation – working with contractors and highways officers, testing new machinery and approaches to influence and drive change within the current roads management contracts
- Undertake a processing feasibility trial to test different processing options and end product use – composting/AD/other processes
- Develop & promote a new method of working as land managers – optimising land/habitat management through collection and removal of arisings, processing of arisings, and end products – to attempt to make the management of RNRs and wider road verge network in Kent sustainable.
- Investment in kit and equipment to deliver above project – working with contractors & other land managers to encourage increased cut & collection of arisings in road verge & other green spaces
- Dissemination and influence – use the experience gained through the project to disseminate and influence the management of the wider road verge network across Kent and SE England.
