Weed control in the public area: combining environmental and economical targets

Herbicide weed control on pavements has the lowest direct costs to control weeds compared to available non-chemical methods. However, side effects of herbicides on pavements (e.g. run-off to surface water) can be large when used without special precautions. In this paper data are shown on costs and side effects of different weed control methods on pavements under Dutch conditions. An Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment shows that the environmental effect of herbicide control system depends to a large extent on the amount of herbicide run-off. In this paper also data of an actor participative project on sustainable weed control on pavements are presented. The objective of the project was to develop a management system that gives a substantial reduction of herbicide run-off while maintaining good level of control at acceptable costs. Surface water, efficacy and cost monitoring in this SWEEP-project showed that the environmental and economical targets could be achieved. It shows that knowledge of costs, efficacy and side effects of weed control methods can be translated into management guidelines that support managers to implement more sustainable weed control