Eco-Friendly Homemade Ice Melt Solutions • Insteading

If you reside in a region where the temperature drops below freezing, you know firsthand the dangers of ice accumulation. When the winter winds blow, temperatures drop, and the rain turns to sleet or snow; driveways, sidewalks, and steps become hazardous.

自制的融冰解决方案和防结冰产品有助于防止雪和冰粘在台阶、人行道、车道和道路上，这意味着要在预报的雪或冰暴前几小时使用。除冰产品打破了现有的冰和雪的纽带。

icy patch in forest — Annie Spratt / Unsplash

Although there are a host of useful commercial de-icing products available, they can be expensive and are potentially harmful to pets, plants, and paved surfaces. That said, there are a variety of cheap, eco-friendly homemade ice melt options available for your home.

Some eco-friendly, homemade ice melt solutions include:

Rubbing alcohol and dish soap
Wisconsin cheese brine
Baking soda
Rock salt
Adding traction
Fertilizer

Some store-bought ice melts include:

Ice slicer
Eco-friendly liquid anti-icing products
Nontoxic antifreeze

Read on to learn more about how to de-ice your sidewalk and driveway to protect you and your family from a potentially dangerous fall.

Rubbing Alcohol and Dish Soap

For a quick fix, a mixture of rubbing alcohol and Dawn dishwashing liquid does the trick. The basic recipe is 5 to 10 drops of Dawn and 1 ounce of rubbing alcohol per quart of warm tap water.

Make up a quart of the mixture, and use a spray bottle to quickly de-ice small areas, or mix several gallons and pour over more extensive areas as needed. The solution works well and will not harm vegetation adjacent to the treated area.

Wisconsin Cheese Brine

威斯康星州的创新人士提出了另一种被证明有效的非常规除冰方法:奶酪盐水。Cheese brine is applied tocombat ice buildup on public roadwaysin several counties in Wisconsin. If you make your own cheese, save the brine and apply it to slippery iced-over spots when the winter winds blow.

Baking Soda

Baking soda is a tried and true homemade ice melt used for slippery walkways and steps. Similar to salt, baking soda lowers the freezing point for ice accumulation to accelerate the melting process. Baking soda is less alkaline than table or rock salt, so it won’t damage concrete or bricks as salt can.

Rock Salt

salted sidewalk homemade ice melt — Daniel Lobo / Flickr (Creative Commons)

The most commonly used homemade ice melt solutions are common table salt, Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate), sodium chloride (commonly known as rock salt), magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, and calcium magnesium acetate.

When applied to slippery surfaces, the salts mix with water from accumulating snow and form a brine that lowers the freezing point of the pavement. Sand is often mixed with these salts or chloride concentrations to increase traction.

如果你选择用盐除冰，一定要记住，盐和氯化物的积累会降低土壤的肥力和渗透性，同时增加密度和碱度。饱和盐分和氯离子对土壤的化学性质产生了不利影响，影响了土壤保持水分的能力——这是控制侵蚀和植物生长的一个重要因素。

Fertilizers

When the highway is too icy to make it to the store safely, you likely have fertilizer stored in the shed. Alfalfa meal, urea, and ammonium sulfate found in fertilizer mixtures will help melt ice. This is a temporary solution and should not be used throughout the season as the properties of most fertilizers, while effective in melting ice, can burn vegetation and erode concrete.

Add Traction

spreading sand on ice — Find it at Amazon

Sand, granite chips, kitty litter, sawdust, or coffee grounds sprinkled on slippery surfaces won’t melt ice but will provide traction that helps prevent falls. If you go with sand,a handheld spreaderis an easy way to make sure that the walkway is thoroughly coated.

最环保的牵引剂是鸟食。Not only does it add good traction, but it also provides feed for birds and domestic fowl that may havedifficulty locating a food sourceduring a winter storm.

Eco-Friendly Commercial Ice Melt Products

In addition to homemade ice melt options, there are a variety of eco-friendly options you can purchase online or at your local home and garden store.

Ice Slicer

If you’re looking for a product that melts down snow and ice while enhancing surface traction, consider applying a commercial granularanti-icing blend of natural minerals such as Ice Slicer.

Available for purchase online, this environmentally friendly, noncorrosive product is a homogeneous blend of calcium, sodium magnesium, potassium, sulfur, iodine, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, and phosphorous that is effective in melting snow and ice to 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Nontoxic Antifreeze

Nontoxic, pet-friendly antifreeze, which substitutes harmful ethylene glycol for propylene glycol, issafe to use to melt ice accumulations on steps and sidewalks. Available at local home and garden shops or online, non-toxic antifreeze is sufficient for melting ice to temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

That said, never use standard automotive antifreeze containing ethylene glycol to melt snow and ice. While it is useful for melting ice, ethylene glycol is extremely poisonous and can kill family pets that are attracted to its sweet taste.

Eco-Friendly Liquid Anti-Icing Products

If you have large areas around the homestead such as driveways or livestock loading ramps, consider buying an environmentally friendly, liquid anti-icing agricultural product. These de-icers are derived from a renewable source such as fermented grains, or the processing of sugars such as beet or cane sugar.

“Beet Heet,” available at local feed supply storesor online它比自制的解决方案稍微贵一些，但可以为环境影响严重的大面积地区提供冰控制。以碳水化合物为基础的除冰剂在零下25华氏度下有效。

A Word of Caution

If you are an organic gardener with concerns about protecting our precious planet, it is best to avoid all commercial anti-icing/de-icing products. Many commercial mixtures incorporate ferric ferrocyanide or sodium ferrocyanide as anti-caking additives. Cyanide damages the environment when it is leached into ground or surface water. Other noxious chemicals found at trace levels in some commercial de-icers, include mercury, lead, and arsenic.

icy walk way — Rob / Flickr (Creative Commons)

Avoid using sand on sidewalks and roadways located in spots where spring rains can wash it into storm drains, ponds, streams, lakes, or wetlands. Sand clouds the water, can smother aquatic life, fills in natural marine and wildlife habitats, and can pollute waterways with contaminants like grease and oil.

防结冰/除冰产品，无论是由简单的家庭成分、盐或化学添加剂自制的混合物，都可能对地毯和木地板造成损害。为了保护你的家的完整性和美丽，当你站在地板垫上或地板可以承受潮湿、泥泞的地方时，一定要脱掉冬天穿的鞋子。