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Is it time to ditch the road salt? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/toronto

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25616911

A growing body of research suggests that road salt contributes to metal corrosion and can have a negative impact on ecosystems. Despite the introduction of some successful alternatives, many Canadian cities are still using salt because it's cheaper.

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[–] Spruce_Gum 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It surprises me that the cost in damage done by salt doesn’t out way the cheap cost of salt itself. You’d think a city like Toronto would save money in the long run by using an alternative to salt, because infrastructure wouldn’t be as susceptible to corrosion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Yes, but us humans are notoriously bad at perceiving time at such scales. We even in moat cases can't see five years into our own futures let alone 50 or 100 years.

We constantly fail to see the cheapest solution in the short term usually tends to be the most expensive in the long term, maybe not for us individually, but for future generations of us.