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Getting Salty with the Snow

Updated: Jan 29, 2022

SHOW NOTES for Green Assistant Radio Episode 08 (aired: 01/24/2022)


Salt De-Icers and Alternatives


Fact: 1 tsp of salt makes 5 gallons of water uninhabitable for freshwater organisms.

Fact: In the US, we use 200 million tons of salt on our roads every year. (That doesn’t even include private sidewalks or parking lots.)

🤷‍♀️ What can I do, just one peasley hooman? 🤷‍♀️

So much more that you realize! When in love and joy, we can make all the difference. And it is so much more fun with a team, so let's dive into this!


Let us know if you have other ideas, questions, or concerns. This is community.

– You can contact us right here.



Featured Music:

Poolside & Omar Velasco, "Shakedown Street"

- Website: poolsidemusic.com

Asa, “Fire on the Mountain”

- Website: asaofficial.com

Stackridge, “The Steam Radio Song”

David Bowie, “Golden Years” video here.


Featured AshevilleFM.org DJs and Shows:

DJ Ernesto at “Loose Fit” on Saturdays from 1-3pm

DJ Nathan at “Lucid” on Mondays from 2-4pm


Featured Station Underwriters:

Fine Arts Theater, fineartstheater.com

Appalachian Realty Associates, appalachianrealty.com

Lenoir Rhyne University, lr.edu/asheville


 


Listen to last episode, Single Use Swaps, through Sunday 1/30/22 in the Archives at AshevilleFM.org.


Follow Up from last episode on Single Use Items:


+ Hotel Items like Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap - leave them undisturbed if you don't need to use them. They can remain for the next guest as long as they are not wet and have not been used at all.


+ Trader Joe’s Grocery Store: They use a LOT of single-use packaging. How can you reduce waste while still shopping there?

  • Bring your Own Grocery Bags (reduce demand for new ones)

  • Make sure that you are eating all of the food that you are buy. Or make an effort to share with neighbors before it starts to go mushy. 🤢

  • Trader Joe’s Community Shares article here.

  • Plastic Package Bags - make sure these go in the TRASH, not into wish-cycling.

These bags are not even recyclable at Retail Bag Recycling! -Link to the WRAP website.-

👇👇 And here is a cheat sheet of the plastics that you CAN recycle at retail stores. 👇👇


+ Single-Use Clothing:

Donating something does not dismiss your single-use purchase.

  • Donating Clothing -vs- Intentional Clothing Donation

- Donating doesn’t count. We need to stop handing our waste off to someone else and then feel “good” about it. -- More to come about clothing, donating, and the waste created by the fashion industry in upcoming episodes. We will explore WHERE to take certain items, WHEN to take them, and WHY to take some and not others.


+ Bidet - how many of yall got one during the “Run on TP” 2020? 🤪

  • We, at Green Assistant Radio, want to explore this topic further… please email us at thegreenassistant@gmail.com with Bidet in the subject line if you’d be willing to fill out a lil questionnaire- likes, dislikes, and challenges to using and continuing use of these items. Super simple and quick, and will be a huge help to us!


 

Salt De-Icers for Roads and Sidewalks

Hidden Costs:

  • Car Rust in undercarriage, lower resale value, damage to hoses and parts

  • Sidewalk Pitting (an interesting video of different melting products here)

  • Harms Animals (pets and wildlife) - toxic when ingested in high amounts

  • Harms Plant life (oversalinates soil and reduces amount of water it can hold)

  • Harms Water (storm water, streams, oceans) and all the beings that depend on water (including hoomans) because WATER IS LIFE! (Detailed video about most of this can be found here.)

Best Practices:

  • Salt Granules should be 3 inches apart. If they're touching, you are using too much!


  • One coffee cup's worth of granules can cover 500 square feet. (20 foot driveway or 10 sidewalk squares)

  • Sweep up the remaining salt granules after the thaw and reuse them!! They don't "go bad" so you can reuse over and over and over.

  • Salt the sidewalk BEFORE it snows. If there is only a slight chance of precipitation, either wait to scatter at the first sign of flurries, or just remember to sweep them up the next day if there was no snow.

  • Shovel the accumulating snow before it has the chance to freeze... yes, even while still snowing if possible.


  • Scatter sand on top of the snow/ice for added traction. (No salt on top of the snow. It doesn't really melt ice and snow from the surface.)

  • VIDEO: Making of the Brine here.


Rhetorical Questions to ponder: Do I need to be out driving in the snow? Can I slow down? Do I expect businesses to operate as usual even when it has snowed? Can I alter my expectations or plans to reduce the amount of people on the road?

(No real answers here, just something to get us thinking in different ways.)




 

Next Episode on January 31st, 2022:

What do I do if I don’t have recycling at my residence? How can I recycle and how can I make it easy to do so? Tune in with us on your community radio station, AshevilleFM, on January 31st at 11am for some tips and tricks that make it easy to Recycle Right.


 


every Monday morning at 11am,

where we get real about going green.



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