Second life for seaweed that accumulates on beaches with the Agro-Posidonia project
The seaweed can be used once again on livestocks farms in the region, as it used to be so.
Monday 7th February 2022 – ÁLVARO MONFORT with Mike Smith
The Xarxa Agrícola de Creama is developing the Agro-Posidonia project, an economy initiative (a production and consumption model that involves recycling materials and products as many times as possible) and which aims to reduce the carbon footprint generated by the removal of seaweed the beaches of La Marina Alta. The plan has already managed to recover and give a new use to almost 30 tons of posidonia.
Posidonia, along with other seaweed, are removed from the beaches during the summer season and stored in a transfer plant. When winter arrived, Dénia Council agreed to return part of that withdrawn amount to the beaches, especially Marineta Cassiana, to serve as a natural barrier against the onslaught of storms.
The rest of the surpluses that are not used in the construction of these walls and those that accumulate after the strong waves are transferred to the livestock farms in the region of Dénia, Pedreguer and Pego that collaborate with Xarxa Agrícola. Seaweed and posidonia, due to their salty properties, are excellent bedding material for livestock.
In addition, when deposited in the pens, this material helps to repel parasites whilst the iodine present in posidonia acts as a healing agent for possible wounds that animals have and its slow decomposition prevents the growth and development of pathogens.
Before the cleaning of the beaches took place, it was the farmers themselves who collected the seaweed and collected the posidonia to transfer it to their farms. Over time, this work ceased to be carried out and, now, the Agro-Posidonia has developed from that old action. This project allows the Posidonia extracted to be treated as a resource, reducing, for example, the kilometres of transport and the use of fuel in its transfer.
The Xarxa Agrícola stands as a regional platform with the aim of revitalizing the agricultural sector of the Marina Alta, creating a network between the different actors in the agricultural sector and interrelating the different resources of the region.
