Implementation

The contract for analysing the quality of roadside grass clippings from the partners (Nature and Forest Agency, Roads and Traffic Agency and De Vlaamse Waterweg) in the PIO project was awarded to Eurofins Agro Testing Belgium NV. The assignment document ‘Assignment for quality analysis of roadside and natural grass clippings with a view to refining and further valorisation’ and the final report can be found below.

The main conclusions from this study are:

• The dry matter content is predominantly lower than 40% and therefore generally favourable for refining for all organisations involved.
• As expected, the feed values are much lower than those of current agricultural grass in Flanders, but are comparable to the values for natural grass clippings from other recent studies.
• The grass clippings from ANB are (slightly) contaminated with soil, and those from DVW and AWV contain a lot of sand/soil. The reason for this is probably the use of flail mowers and the mowing conditions.
• The lignin content is high, which indicates that the herbs mowed late in the season were somewhat woody. However, only in exceptional cases was a lot of woody material from trees/shrubs included.
• No exceedances of the standards for heavy metals were found in the ANB grass clippings. However, vigilance remains necessary, as this did occur in a small number of cases in the DVW and AWV grass clippings.