Milwaukee is using cheese brine waste to de-ice city roads as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to rock salt, which can wash away and pollute waterways.
Wisconsin, which makes more cheese than any other US state, produced 2.7 billion pounds in 2012, the New York Times reports. This also creates a waste management issue: a surplus of cheese brine that must be sent to waste treatment plants.
Cheese brine can be used on roads if limited to eight gallons per ton of rock salt used.
Chuck Engdahl, the wastewater manager at F & A Dairy Products in northwestern Wisconsin, tells the newspaper his company now donates most of the brine to municipalities that pick it up from the dairy, saving him about $20,000 a year in hauling costs.
Polk County, Wisc. saved $40,000 in rock salt expenses in 2009, the year it started using cheese brine on its highways.
Source: Environmental Leader