Environmental News Network - By Leaving Garden Waste Alone, we Could Store 600,000 Tons of CO2 Per Year

Details: By University of Copenhagen; 25.Oct

Come fall, the sound of a leaf blower blasting leaves into piles, or the sight of a queue of garden waste-packed trailers at the recycling center is all too common, as trees shed their golden brown and yellow robes.

Cheryl Porter

Come fall, the sound of a leaf blower blasting leaves into piles, or the sight of a queue of garden waste-packed trailers at the recycling center is all too common, as trees shed their golden brown and yellow robes.

For the most part, Danes are happy to "tidy up" their gardens. Ministry of Environment figures report that Danes disposed of 983,000 tonnes of garden waste in 2019, all of which is transported, sorted and processed by municipal waste management systems. The largest branches and trunks are burned for bioenergy, while small branches, leaves and grass clippings are composted.

But perhaps we should leave more of our garden alone. According to Per Gundersen, a professor of forest ecology at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen, there are large CO2 savings to be made. Professor Gundersen calculated the implications for Denmark’s national climate account if Danes simply allowed garden waste to decompose in their gardens instead of burning it.

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By Leaving Garden Waste Alone, we Could Store 600,000 Tons of CO2 Per Year