Protect yourself from slip-sliding away this winter with eco-friendly alternatives to harsh ice-melting chemicals, "traction granules" and even salt, which isn’t as harmless as you might think.
Ice Melting Products
- NOT SO GOOD: Fertilizer-based ice melters don’t work when the temperature is below 20°F.
Greener Ways to Break the (Sidewalk) Ice
- BETTER: Salt does melt the ice, but it also kills vegetation — so it is worth finding other solutions. Even if the package says "natural," if the product is made with salt, it’s bad for your grass and plants. (Salt is a great way to get rid of poison ivy at a different time of year). There is one eco-brand of salt melt called WinterGreen that has resolved the vegetation-kill problem.
- BEST BET: Natural plant salt melts that contain a lot of nitrogen, such as alfalfa meal, are increasingly used as "green" alternatives. The do-it-yourself versions can result in a bit of a mess. Try the less-messy liquid plant-based ice melting products like Bare Ground and this one by Earth Friendly Products.
Traction Gripper Products
- NOT SO GOOD: Skip fancy brands of traction gripper granules, even if advertised as eco-friendly — if the ingredients list includes "grey granules" or other mysterious-sounding substances, or if the product’s Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) recommends respirators if the product is somehow ignited. "Grey granules" isn’t informative enough. Some people use kItty litter, but it can get slippery and hard to clean off the sidewalk after the snow and ice have melted.
- BETTER: Wood stove and fireplace ashes work very well to provide traction on ice. Make sure your fireplace ashes have no embers, then sprinkle them over the ice. One downside is, of course, that the ashes can get tracked inside. Place a doormat made with strong fibers at the front door to scrape the ashes off shoes and boots. Removing shoes at the door is a good practice all year round to reduce toxins in your home.
- BEST BET: I like sand for traction. I buy a few bags every fall and it gets me through the winter. Try using a hand-held sand spreader. You’ll also want a doormat to help clean sand off the bottoms of shoes and boots, just like with ashes — but the mess is less.
Thank you for this article. I live in cold, snowy Minnesota, and have tried many products, only to find that in the spring, my beloved garden suffered from all the chemicals that I had been feeding the ground all winter. I occured to me one day to use the ash from my woodburning stove and it has worked a treat. The stove is our primary source of heat, and so you can imagine how many times a week I empty the ash bucket. Sure, we do track in some ash, but it is a small price to pay for having a healthy garden. And the upside is that in the spring, I can retreive all the ash and mix it into the soil when I put in new plants. That, along with my compost makes for the greenest garden around.