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GQT - banned chemicals / weedkillers

• Message 1. 

  Posted by rovingricey (U14470107) on Sunday, 16th May 2010

  This week on Gardeners' Question Time the presenter mentioned that several widely used chemicals in weedkillers and insecticides were now banned or being phased out.
  
  I try to garden organically but I look after my father in law's garden and he has a garage full of half used old weedkillers and similar. I am sure that at least some of them must now be illegal!
  
  I have tried to find the factsheet that was referred to in the programme but to no avail.
  
  Please could someone give me the link to it?
  
  Also, what do people think I should do with the chemicals in order to responsibly dispose of them?
  
  The presenter mentioned that for some things the best way to dispose of them is simply to use them up as they would have been used in the past. I'm reluctant to do this as I have been trying to garden without using chemicals but I will do this if it is seen as the most responsible method.
  
  Any help will be gratefully received! Helen

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by joanybird (U11052594) on Sunday, 16th May 2010

  Took a lot of 'clicks' in the GQT site, but finally found it
  
  
  
  I've tried to be organic for some years but still have some old stuff I need to dispose of, so hopefully the site will have some useful information on that for us.
  
  Jb

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by rovingricey (U14470107) on Sunday, 16th May 2010

  That's very helpful, thank you.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Neil (U14410835) on Sunday, 16th May 2010

  If you dont want to use the chemicals [dont blame you either] then take it to your local council tip and theyll get rid of it properly for you.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by Colin (U2252951) on Sunday, 16th May 2010

  I remember when any weed problems and it was slosh, slosh, slosh with the paraquat.
  
  

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by jauntycyclist (U14199772) on Monday, 17th May 2010

  weed killers get banned again? this happens a lot. usually its a marketing trick. every 10 years or so.
  
  good way to dispose of them is to use them.
  
  the best way is not to buy them in the first place. there are plenty you can make yourself from plants in the garden or stuff in the kitchen cabinet.
  
  the eu requires any chemical to go through a test which costs a million pounds or so per product. which is why there are no new entrants into the chemical market but the same old multinationals churning out the same old stuff with different names on the boxes. its a racket.
  
  the EU has placed a knowledge ban on the recipes to make it difficult for people to make their own [to lock eu citizens into buying the multinational stuff] but the info is available on the net from places outside the EU.
  
  Chemistry opens the secrets imo. the basis of most things in the garden is alkaline and acid. e.g nettles sting is acid and doc leaves are alkaline. but anything alkaline will do.
  
  when you start to look at why things from basic chemistry it gives a good starting point. litmus paper is useful if not essential to understanding how a garden works. test all the plants and see what happens. one can test the bugs too. A good gardener [like a good cook] knows something of chemistry imo. but its rarely covered.

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by bookertoo (U3655866) on Wednesday, 19th May 2010

  as you don't need any chemical produced in a factory in any garden, the problem of disposal will no longer raise its ugly head. (!!??) Take them to a recycling depot where, if a properky run one, they will have facilites to get rid of.
  
  DO NOT use old chemicals for 2 reasons. 1) it is illegal, once thay ae banned they are banned and that means even if they are in your shed, sometimes they are banned for good reasons 2) They go off and change chemically as time passes, so you may be using something that is not only illegal but maybe positively harmful.
  
  The only 'chemicals' I use, ecxcept me and I am indeed a walking heap of chemicals like everyone else, is organic seaweed solution to feed anything that needs it, and organic pelleted chicken poo in April as a wake up nosh for the whole garden.
  
  Weeds get smothered in things I want, or pulled out by hand, or - if I'm feeling idle, ignored, after all, a weed is only a plant in the wrong place. (Mind, I did have an allotment I shared with mares tail, it won)
  

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by Trillium (U2170869) on Wednesday, 19th May 2010

  The only 'chemicals' I use, except me and I am indeed a walking heap of chemicals like everyone else 
  
  Funny isn't it, that most people will happily consume pills produced in chemical factories ourselves, but don't like to use them on the soil. I'm an organic gardener too, and not on prescription drugs, as it happens, though I'll sink a few Nurofen without blinking. So when you think of what is getting collectively flushed into our waterworks, you do wonder whether the organic movement has things in perspective.

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 8.

  Posted by bookertoo (U3655866) on Thursday, 20th May 2010

  Possibly not in persepective, but if growing food I am going to put in my mouth I don't intend to put more abnormal chemicals in it than necessary!! As the world and everything in it, including you and me, are made entirely of chemicals in themselves, we need to be thoughtful about what we say on the subject. I guess most would agree it is the excess use of artificial chemials we are trying to avoid. I know that in competition with agribusiness I don't stand a chance, but as with my boycott of Nestle, one pinch can get annoying eventually, especially if it spreads.
  
  I don't see why we should all just stand by and let big business, pharmecuticals, 'food' industries etc. rule at at a personal level, and I think that is all I am trying to do in my little patch of ground. However, if enough patches are dealt with, and put together, we may have a very large counterpane, maybe enough to protect a bit more than we thought?
  
  As for drugs, yes, big Pharma has alot to answer for in the reckless rape of the world, but as a worker in the caring profession, I also know that human made drugs do serve a good purpose - but so many produced are not for a good medical reason -- however, that is not a discussion for this board.
  
  Lets try and do what we can for our families and friends, and see where eventually that leads us - to less use of factory produced garden 'killers' maybe?

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