For many years, Roundup-branded herbicides containing glyphosate have been the main chemical grass and weed killers available on the market. However, that is changing and there are a few things that are important to know. First, there are organic alternatives to Roundup that may not kill weeds quite as well but that work well enough and don’t come with the inherent risks of Roundup. Second, the chemicals inside the Roundup Grass & Weed Killer products are changing and may pose more of an issue to human and plant health than the original Roundup.
In 2024, Bayer was supposed to remove glyphosate from many of its Roundup-branded herbicides, moving toward using other active ingredients such as diquat, fluazifop, imazapic, and triclopyr. However, as of 2025, glyphosate is still an ingredient in Roundup products, and the ingredients they’ve added to their formulas are even more concerning, with their own toxic side effects.
In a recent analysis, environmental health advocacy group Friends of the Earth found that Bayer’s new Roundup products are on average 45 times more toxic to human health than the previous formulas. Expert and doctor of Functional Medicine Dr. Mark Hyman reports that the EPA has linked these chemicals to birth defects, reproductive dysfunction, kidney and liver damage, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract.
Glyphosate has been sold under the trade name Roundup for over five decades. It has been widely used in agriculture and the landscape because of its weed-killing effectiveness, relatively fast degradation in the soil, and relatively low acute toxicity (LD50 > 5000 mg/kg). In recent years, Roundup has been associated with elevated cancer risks in agricultural workers, and there has been a push to remove it.
In a huge victory for a Georgia man who developed cancer from using Roundup, Bayer was recently ordered to pay the plaintiff $2.1 billion in compensation and damages.
While this is great news, the “new” Roundup formulas aren’t any better than the glyphosate-containing products and, in our opinion, may be worse from a health and environmental perspective.
For years we’ve been using Fatty Acids and Herbicidal Soaps to naturally suppress weeds. Our products don’t necessarily kill the roots like Roundup did, but they make it much easier to keep unwanted grass and weeds from taking over your mulch beds, driveways, and other landscape areas. You can choose to have Good Nature perform this work for you or do it yourself.
If you’re interested in having us treat your mulch beds, patios, or driveway for grass and weeds, we’d be happy to give you a quote. We come out about every 3-5 weeks over the Spring, Summer, and Fall to keep the weeds from getting out of hand. Let us know if you’d like a quote.
If you prefer to handle the weeds on your own, you can always pick them out. If you don’t have the time for that, we’d be happy to get you some of our Fatty Acid product, Deadweed Brew. You can get it in several sizes and handle the weeds yourself. Just let us know, and we can drop some off for you the next time we’re out or get it to you sooner if necessary.