Chip factory waste 'could regenerate' salt marshes

Joseph Earl of the Morecambe Bay Partnership says salt marshes help protect coastlines from flooding and storm damage

Some of the waste produced while making crisps and chips is helping to protect and regenerate vulnerable salt marshes.

Conservationists are using grids made from potato starch, along with ropes and willow, to boost plants suited to living in salt marshes.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said 85% of England's salt marshes had been lost since 1860.

Lancashire's can be found at Hest Bank, Bolton-le-Sands and Jenny Brown's Point.

Grids including potato starch are helping to boost the growth of plants known to be able to survive in salt marshes

Salt marshes, as well as helping to prevent flooding nearby, provide unique habitats for birds, fish and some rare plants.

The Our Future Coast project is led by Wyre Council and managed by Lancaster City Council with assistance from the environmental group the Morecambe Bay Partnership.

Joseph Earl, of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, said the new grids "essentially try to trap sediment and encourage growth".

He said the grids were environmentally friendly since "the crucial thing is that they will biodegrade over a long period of time".

Mr Earl said: "Salt marshes help to absorb wave energy, they help to reduce the risk of flooding and storms, so the bigger picture is to try and restore the marsh and allow that safety net to re-establish."

Lancaster City Council project manager Eleanor Brown hopes to see some additional growth on the grids by spring

The grids, manufactured in the Netherlands by BESE, have been used successfully in Australia and the United States.

Lancaster City Council project manager Eleanor Brown said: "Success in the short term is that the BESE grids end up being covered in sediment, at which point they will biodegrade.

"That will be enough for colonising plants to take hold and start to grow."