Plastic carrier bags are extremely useful and very practical, we can use them to transport our shopping home from the supermarket, the kids can use them to carry their muddy football boots home after a match, and we can even use them to make Plarn, a plastic yard that can be used to make bags and mats. However, a St Albans based business, FRE-dome Visionary Trust, has found a brand new use for plastic carrier bags, and it could just help save our coastlines.
In a bid to help prevent coastal erosion, the FREdome Visionary Trust has launched a project to encourage the public to pick up seeds they find across the region, such as acorns, seeds and nuts, and nurture them into saplings in plastic carrier bags in their back gardens.
These saplings will then mature in the carrier bags, and after a couple of years, they will be taken to the seaside and transplanted into the ground to create a “Bio-shield” that will protect the British coastline from eroding further.
Speaking on behalf of the Trust, Greg Peachey said, “Self-seeded trees in parks tend to be mowed down, while those in woodland fail to thrive under the shade of the canopy. So the saplings that people nurture and save would not otherwise exist.”
A similar project in New Zealand achieved very positive results, with the coastline actually extending out into the sea, and the FREdome Trust believe that a newly created Bio-shield in the UK will help convert carbon emissions and waste into food and fuel, and protect low-lying agricultural land from flooding and salt poisoning.
“It all starts with the little seeds that people will collect,” said Mr Peachey, and if you would like to take part, all you need to go is grab a handful of fallen acorns next time you take the dog for a walk, plant them in a range of plastic carrier bags, and wait for them to grow.
A great way to use up those supermarket carrier bags you have at home, while doing something good for the environment, this project certainly gets our thumbs up!
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