Beet juice, molasses, pickle brine: Eco-friendly options to avoid icy roads

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FILE - Still image from video taken of city workers spray beet juice brine to avoid icy roadways. (Credit: Converse Fire Department Lt. Eli Garcia) 

Cities across the United States are thinking up eco-friendly ways to "beet" icy road conditions amid extreme winter weather. 

Brining roadways to avoid slippery and unsafe driving conditions during winter storms is common practice, but did you know that some places combine beet juice with the salty brine?

Yes, beet juice is an eco-friendly alternative used in brine mixtures to create sticky, but safe, roadways.

Beet juice used as eco-friendly option to avoid icy roadways

The city of Converse in Texas used beet juice mixed with salt brine to create an eco-friendly option to prevent icy road conditions amid extreme winter weather. (Credit: Converse Fire Department Lt. Eli Garcia) 

Too salt is impacting our environment

Dig deeper:

Tossed onto sidewalks and dumped onto highways, salt for decades has provided the cheapest and most effective way to cut down on traffic accidents and pedestrian falls during winter storms.

But researchers cite mounting evidence that those tons of sodium chloride crystals — more than 20 million nationwide each year — are increasing the salinity of hundreds of lakes, especially in the Northeast and Midwest.

Salt corrosion already causes billions of dollars in damage each year to cars, roads and bridges — and now there are growing signs it’s making freshwater ecosystems saltier. In the past 50 years, chloride concentrations in some lakes and rivers quadrupled and, in a few, increased a hundredfold.

That's putting everything from fish and frogs to microscopic zooplankton at risk.

Though experts say it is impossible to eliminate salt completely from brine mixtures, it doesn’t mean we can’t try to use less. 

80% salt brine, 20% beet juice 

Local perspective:

Cities such as Converse, Texas, are using beet juice to combat some of the extreme winter weather that slammed parts of the U.S. over the weekend. 

What they're saying:

"It’s (beet juice) a byproduct of sugar beet processing, mixed typically at 80% salt brine to 20% beet juice, making winter road maintenance more efficient and environmentally safer," the Converse Fire Department said in a Facebook post. 

The beet juice/brine mixture is even effective during temperatures that reach -20°F, the department claimed. 

Other eco-safe alternatives used to brine roadways include mixtures with molasses, beer waste, pickle brine and even cheese brine.