I have had people ask me about a Round Up alternative. The main reason for their concern is the toxicity of the active ingredient, glyphosate, in Round Up. The most common alternative is a combination of vinegar, Epsom Salt, and dish soap. Before you start to look up the recipe online, I would like to point out a few warnings about this mixture.
Vinegar and salt on their own are considered to be more toxic than glyphosate. This is looking at the lethal dose 50. Which is the amount of a product it takes to kill half of the test population. The lower the amount to kill, the more toxic it is. But now you are mixing the two ingredients together to only up the toxicity for humans.
This concoction will work for a short amount of time. However, the weed will most of the time survive the mixture, and it will start to grow again. Now you are going to have to do this all over again, but still you will achieve mediocre results at best. You most likely will not be able to eliminate the weed, but you may poison the soil along the way. And you are exposing yourself to the toxicity with the vinegar and Epsom Salt.
In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the group that placed Round Up in this dangerous category. Other items placed in this same category by WHO are coffee, pickled vegetables, cell phones, aloe vera extract, as well as being a barber or a fry cook. Academic scientists have replied to WHO saying the evidence to support the glyphosate (Round Up) placement to be thin.
Many of the other alternatives that can be found on the internet simply do not work for getting rid of the weeds. Or they are so toxic that it sterilizes the soil so that nothing can grown in that spot at all.
If chemicals are a concern, the best way to handle weeds then is by hand. There is no magic solution that will take care of weeds and is better for you. It just does not exist. And before you try a Round Up alternative you find online, do a little more research. Odds have it that there is something harmful to you or the environment. And remember, if you do use a pesticide, always read the label and follow all of the directions on the label because that label is the law.