How sargassum seaweed harvested in Fort Lauderdale is reused
Fresh seaweed is mixed with older seaweed and soil, then rests in a pile for about 4 months. They go from being a nuisance to being useful.
Does anyone want to plant land? Fort Lauderdale reuses truckloads of seaweed. Crews in Fort Lauderdale go out daily to collect it. They take truckloads to Snyder Park, where the city can reuse it.
"How many trucks do you get a day?" asked CBS 4's Ted Scouten of parks superintendent Mark Almy. "On an average day, if it's just a very quiet day, we'd get one to three. Lately, we've been getting up to 10 and 12 because the algae are so heavy and so high right now," Almy said.
There's lots of it here and Almy welcomes it all. This is where that alga turns to dirt. "We just wait for it to rot and, when it decomposes, it smells very little. Once it starts to decompose, you can see that process has started and it becomes dirt," he said.
Fresh seaweed is mixed with older seaweed and soil, then rests in a pile for about 4 months. They go from being a nuisance to being useful. "This is the finished product with the composted seaweed, this is what it becomes, good black soil," Almy said as he scooped up a handful.
That soil is used for Fort Lauderdale streetscaping, and the public can pick it up and use it at home for free. "It's the best soil for planting. It's very natural, nothing has been processed concerning added chemicals. It already has a sand amendment that keeps it spongy for the roots to go through," he said.
That soil is available for the public to pick up for free at Snyder Park in Fort Lauderdale. It is located at 3299 SW 4th Ave.
