Vinegar kills weeds, but the city is reluctant to use it

A mixture of vinegar, dish soap and salt is an effective herbicide, but an official says it requires a lot of testing before the city would use it.

Thestar.com
Sept. 15, 2015
By Jack Lakey

Vinegar may be an environmentally friendly way to kill weeds, but the city isn’t about to embrace it any time soon.

After reporting last week on weeds along Cosburn Ave., many readers told us a mixture of vinegar, dish soap and salt is a good alternative to the toxic chemicals formerly used by the city for weed eradication.

Upwards of 20 readers recommended a concoction with vinegar as the key ingredient, while others said that boiling water and even chlorine are effective weed killers.

Harry Vandenberg said he’s been using a 20-1 solution of swimming pool chlorine and water for 15 years, adding it will also clean grime from patio stones and interlocking brick.

“I spray it on any kind of weed, (but) be careful with the spray,” he said. “It ruins any cotton fabric by leaving white spots that eventually become a hole. Be extra careful not to ruin your clothing.”

OK, maybe chlorine is too corrosive. But food products like vinegar and salt, which add zest to french fries, seem more palatable and unlikely to burn holes in pants or cause environmental damage.

After all, the city has for years been using beet juice to make road salt more effective in extreme cold. So why isn’t it trying the vinegar/salt/dish soap solution to kill weeds?

It’s a question raised by several readers, so we asked Rob Burlie, one of the top managers in transportation services, if it would consider trying out the vinegar mixture as an herbicide.

After the province banned toxic chemicals in 2009, “a number of trials were completed, using a variety of products including heated water,” said Burlie.

“They initially showed good results, but in the end the weeds came back to the same level.

“What is required is rigorous cutting and removal of materials that embed themselves in the cracks, which then become the growing medium. We are looking at routing and/or sealing surface cracks with hot-poured rubberized asphalt as a potential solution.

“Any common household products, when they come into public use at the scale that would be required for work on the road allowance, would also need to be reviewed to ensure they were not harmful to the environment, the public and pets.”

It sounds like the city is unwilling to give vinegar a chance, except on fries.