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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

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From waste to energy—weeds as a source of biofuel (techxplore.com)

submitted 1 week ago by solo@slrpnk.net to c/zerowaste@slrpnk.net

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Researchers have assessed the potential to convert 15 weed species found west of Brisbane into biomass pellets, which were used as a solid biomass fuel.

The findings are published in the journal Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments.

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[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I think it really depends. Trees actually aren't as good at storing carbon as bog plants are. Peat just keeps stacking up indefinitely, while trees only hold what carbon they can hold while alive, unless something unusual happens (e.g., sinking in a swamp, buried by humans, etc)

This was actually a problem in Scotland where there were misguided attempts at planting trees into peatlands for ecological benefit, but they actually did more harm.

With herbacious, or shrubby plants, it's going to really depend. Some perennial plants are able to build up a pretty decent root mass in the soil that keeps the carbon locked up in the soil for a long time. It may not be as good as trees, but there are plenty of places that just can't support the biomass of trees (deserts, prairies, savannahs, etc.), and non-tree plants are the best you can do there.

This is all also modified by the fact that a lot of times, invasive plant removal is desirable anyway, so you might as well utilize the waste.