‘Green’ energy, plant food from Florida’s stinky seaweed? Ideas will be put to test

Seaweed poses all sorts of problems when it piles up on South Florida beaches. It stinks, spoils the view and makes swimming icky. It’s also pricey to haul off to the landfill, which currently is the only viable disposal option.

Someday maybe all those tons of sargassum might be worth their weight in, if not gold, maybe fertilizer.

Turning seaweed into plant food is one of six proposals that Miami-Dade is considering as part of a county effort to find new ways to deal with a seaweed surge that scientists expect climate change will only make worse. Other potential pilot projects could explore converting sargassum into building material, types of “green” fuel and even an additive that could help reduce erosion of the beaches where the sargassum winds up.

Read the full story in The Miami Herald.