Forget booms. The new low-technology answer to mopping up oil slicks
as they come ashore is straw mats, the invention of former Shetland crofter
Straw, seen here being laid on a beach in Shetland last week, can absorb
15 times its own weight in oil, says Frogbrook. The government’s Marine
Pollution Control Unit airlifted his machine for turning straw into mats
to Shetland within three days of the Braer running onto the rocks, since
when it has been used as a protective barrier around salmon farms and to
mop up oil on beaches.
Peter Taylor, of Frogbrook’s company Frogmat Environmental Protection,
said this week that 2 kilometres of ‘Frogmat’ has been laid so far with
another 20 kilometres on order. ‘At £4 to £6 per metre, mats
are much cheaper than booms,’ he says. ‘What is more, unlike booms they
can be deployed in a force 12 hurricane without blowing away. Taylor says
barley straw is the best material, but any locally available plant stems
can be used to make the netting that holds the straw.