Waltham Forest is actively reducing the use of pesticides within the environment, especially in Parks and Open spaces, following concerns about their damaging effect on biodiversity.
Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide, but in an effort to reduce the use of this chemical, Waltham Forest is moving away from the use herbicides in parks and open spaces for weed control in October 2019.
The focus will be on controlling weeds using cultural methods or sustainable applications. This can be manual, removal by hand or hoeing etc. or by hot water or steam treatments, which are environmentally friendly and leave no residual impact on our environment.
The borough plans to proactively look at new weed control solutions in a move to reduce chemical weed control beyond parks and open spaces.