Japanese knotweed has a pretty villainous reputation, but what if there was a way to positively harness its ability to scavenge atmospheric carbon and use it to help fight climate change?

That might sound ambitious but we’ve been looking for more environmentally friendly ways of dealing with Japanese knotweed waste for a number of years and following field trials at our research facility in Surrey we believe we’re onto something.

Homeowners are starting to cotton on about the invasive nature of certain varieties of bamboo, which have become extremely popular in British gardens for their screening properties and as a way of giving structure to borders.

That’s what Japanese knotweed is called in Swedish and it’s certainly hit the headlines over the last couple of weeks, with stories all over the Swedish national and regional media such as SVT, which is rather like the BBC and national broadsheet Dagens Nyheter.