Winter is coming, which means ice on sidewalks and driveways. You don’t want to take a chance with a slip-and-fall accident, but did you know that using many commercial products to de-ice your walkways could poison the water and plants in your landscape?
Many de-icing products can harm plants – including the trees, shrubs and grasses in your yard – that can’t tolerate the salty water that runs off walkways in the winter. The byproduct of many commercial de-icers can also be toxic for animals that live in freshwater and are exposed through the runoff into your storm drain system.
But you can take steps to clear the ice while reducing the environmental impact!
First, always be proactive to keep ice from accumulating on your home walkways! Nothing beats using a shovel to clear snow before it has a chance to melt and ice up during evening hours. The sooner you do it after the snow falls, the better.
If the ice still forms and you’re worried about slipping, try scattering sand or birdseed on your sidewalks and driveway. These natural remedies won’t melt the ice, but they will give you traction to walk without leaving a toxic residue. Skip using the kitty litter or wood ashes, though. These can be messy to clean up when temperatures rise in the spring.
Need to break out something more effective for highly-traveled areas? Try using a mixture of warm water mixed with table salt or water conditioning salt to treat smaller, thinner areas of ice. Then, apply the sand for traction.
Finally, if you feel that you must use a de-icing product, you can minimize the harmful impact by using only the smallest amount necessary in only the areas that will be walked on after you’ve removed as much snow and ice as possible with a shovel. That’s generally about one handful of rock salt per square yard.
Put the de-icer on before snow and ice accumulate (to make it easier to remove), and don’t use the product within 5 – 10 feet of plants growing along the walkway. Never use a fertilizer, as the nutrients will run off and pollute your local waterways.
Also keep in mind the following info on de-icing products, given as a list from most to least harmful, while choosing which to buy:
- Rock Salt is the most common, but it contains cyanide and is harmful to plants, pets and water life.
- Calcium chloride is a better choice than rock salt, but it can also harm plants. However, this costs much more than rock salt.
- Magnesium chloride is the least toxic de-icing salt because it contains less chloride.
- Calcium magnesium acetate is considered the best overall choice for safely melting ice because it contains no chloride, but it is much more expensive and the cost may be prohibitive for many homeowners.
For more useful information on how to keep your landscape green while de-icing this winter, visit this article. A second article with more information on how chemical de-icers can hurt waterways, wildlife and plants can be found here.