Anyone who plants a tree in their own garden compensates for some of their own CO2 emissions. But it can also be done by scattering sand or garden soil from greenSand. This also removes this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, the Olivine Group claims. There is a calculator on the website. If we spread 14 kilos of greenSand on a garden measuring 3 by 8 metres, we will achieve a CO2 reduction of 18 kilos per year. If all Dutch people did this in their garden, we would all reduce CO2 by 65 million kilos. That is equivalent to the emissions of 22,562 cars. The miracle lies in the ingredient “natural olivine”, a green-colored mineral of volcanic origin that has even been traced to Mars. When it reacts with CO2, the rock begins to weather. Professor Olaf Schuiling has been propagating for some time to combat global warming in this way. But it is expensive. A big bag of coarse grains of olivine costs 595 euros. It is financially more bearable to buy this igneous rock when it has been processed in a bag of garden soil in a ground form. It then costs 3.95 euros per 10 liters.
Eddy Wijnker, director of greenSand: 'Lime for your turf is more expensive. Olivine contains a lot of magnesium, it makes the grass greener.'
Wijnker has to get the garden centers in the Netherlands on board for the time being. The number of outlets is currently limited to three. Wijnker: 'Our biggest customer so far has been Bob Crébas, of nettle fashion Brennels. He has a large site in the Flevopolder where we have spread greenSand on 50 hectares. If we were to do that worldwide, it would cost 300 billion euros. That is much cheaper than CO2 storage underground, as in Barendrecht.”
A message from Jan Bom, article in the magazine P-plus