14 DAY TRIAL // In late December, I told you about how a city in Wisconsin, US was looking into the possibility of using cheese brine to clear its roads during winter time.
It turns out people in the city of Williams Lake in British Columbia are also fairly imaginative when it comes to finding new ways to get rid of snow and ice while keeping costs at a minimum.
Grist tells us that this urban area has until now dumped some 9,000 gallons of beet juice on its roads.
It did so not because its residents were sick and tired of drinking it and being healthy, but because the city's high officials thought it to be a good way to deal with the local snow and ice.
Before being purposely spilled on the ground, the beet juice was “spiked” with saline. Apparently, the folks behind this initiative are fairly satisfied with how things have turned out.
High officials expected that, by no longer requiring loads of sand and salt in order to cope with the winter conditions, Williams Lake will manage to save some money, not to mention the fact that cutting down on the amount of salt that is spread on roads can only benefit the environment.
Besides, they say that the beet juice mix offers one other advantage: unlike sand, one does not have to clean it up once spring arrives.