Crushed basalt donated from Hanson UK's Builth Wells quarry in Powys is being used in a field trial to measure the impact it can have on removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
The world-first project by The Carbon Community aims to define a new reforestation approach to accelerate and enhance the sequestration of CO2 in trees and soil and improve biodiversity.
In May more than 25,000 trees have been planted on 11ha just outside the Brecon Beacons in Wales. The project will assess the effects of using live soils from nearby forests to reintroduce microbes and organisms to increase tree survival rates as well as enhanced rock weathering (ERW) on carbon sequestration.
Marian Garfield, sustainability director at Hanson UK (HeidelbergCement group), said: "We are excited to be involved with this project, which aims to determine whether basalt can accelerate the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere in the creation of new woodland and could therefore potentially play a vital role in helping tackle the climate crisis."
ERW takes crushed basalt, a by-product of quarrying, and applies it to the soil to capture CO2 and provide essential nutrients to fertilise trees and the fungi in the soil that support tree growth. It is a method that has been proven to be successful in sugar beet and pea crops.
The study is being run in partnership with leading scientists from ETH Zürich Crowther Lab, Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Sheffield, The Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Hanson UK supports The Carbon Community’s reforestation project
