How I Learned to Use Salt and Love the Environment

Winter: the season of cold, blowing, snowy days, shovelling, sensible gripping footwear, and salt.  Not your mundane small-crystal table salt, but the large, sharp, gritty, white chunks of the stuff. 

Vehicles spreading the chunky salt crystals are everywhere. But there is a growing mountain of evidence showing that salt is a significant pollutant harming land and water environments, drinking water, infrastructure, vehicles, pets, and crops.

According to Queens University researcher Dr. Shelley Arnott, 5 million tons of road salt are used in Canada each year.  As part of an international research team, Dr. Arnott found salt levels in waterways around big cities to be hundreds of times more toxic than expected. In Canada, one main guideline is that there shouldn’t be more than 120 milligrams of chloride in every litre of fresh water. But in waterways in and around cities like Toronto, salt levels measured as high as 18,000 mg/L after snowfalls,

Oversalting undoubtedly comes from a place of concern because icy conditions are unsafe, but here are some suggestions for reducing salt use:

1)    Shovel before salting.

2)    Clear off—and salt—only the pathways that you’re actually going to use.

3)    Don’t over salt. You only need 1 tbsp of road salt for 1 sq. metre of pavement to protect against slips!

4)    Aim.  Flinging salt into your yard is useless, wasteful, and expensive.

5)    If you use a salt spreader, make sure it’s calibrated correctly, and that the auger isn’t getting clogged.

6)    If the surface that you’re salting is -10℃ or below, sodium chloride won’t melt much of anything. At that temperature, choose something for traction, like sand, fireplace ash, coffee grounds, or kitty litter.

7)    The more ice that you have, the more salt that you’ll need. Keep problem patches from forming by directing downspouts away from the driveway or walkways. 

Try using de-icing alternatives