Council to control weeds without glyphosate

Published on 24 June 2020

In the interest of environmental health, Frankston City Council will cease using glyphosate for local weed control as of Wednesday 1 July.

Frankston City Mayor, Sandra Mayer, said the glyphosate ban demonstrated Council’s commitment to prioritising environmental care.

“We believe by stopping the use of this herbicide, we are helping to protect our natural, coastal environment for future generations.

“The community may notice more weeds as we transition to environmentally friendly methods of weed control and we thank everyone for their understanding,” Cr Mayer said.

Council discontinued using glyphosate at playgrounds, preschools and maternal child health centres on January 1 2020.

Council staff and contractors instead increased hand weeding, brush cutting and mulching of garden beds to supress weeds. These actions will be rolled out across the rest of the city.

“We will also increase roadside mowing, trial steam weed control and consider park designs which reduce the need for herbicides, as well as researching and testing out low-risk herbicides,” Cr Mayer said.

This decision is in line with actions being taken by progressive local governments across Australia and the world.

A report identifying key learnings, improvements, challenges and future recommendations from the glyphosate ban will be presented to Council in July 2021.