The Grass2Grit project has been working on a circular method of using roadside grass and process it into grass juice and grass fibres. The juice was to be used as a de-icer of the road and the fibres as an ingredient for road furniture.
The project stopped in 2022 with the conclusion that the production of a bio-de-icer is both environmental and economically unsustainable.
However, there is a positive future for making roadside grass into bio-based products. The grass fibres have an economic value: After drying and sieving, they can be used in several bio-based products, such as road furniture and isolation panels. Firma J. van Bodegom & Zn. B.V. will continu processing roadside grass.
From grass to de-icer
In June 2018, Grass2Grit received a LIFE grant in the category ‘Environment and Resource Efficiency’ to carry out this pilot project.
The project has carried out a pilot in the verges along the N504 in North Holland. A production location was set up nearby in Broek op Langedijk with equipment that could wash, press and filter the roadside grass. The roadside grass from the verges of the N504 has been processed into grass juice and grass fibres. The grass juice is filtered and concentrated by electrodialysis into a bio-de-icer. The fibres were dried and sieved so that they could be processed into biobased products.
Positive environmental effects
The processing of roadside grass leads to less waste. In addition to this circular approach, a nature-friendly way of mowing was applied during the project, named sinus mowing. By mowing differently, biodiversity along the road increases.
