Jared Day is chief executive of SolarMelts, which makes an additive to road salt.
Photographer: Lanna Apisukh/BloombergGreen Product Makers Struggle to Sell to US City and State Governments
Cities and states around the country have green goals and huge buying power, but old procurement practices die hard.
The snowstorms that walloped the US in January sent thousands of salt trucks onto the roads, scattering a cheap, readily available mineral that does a good job of melting ice — but at a high cost to the environment.
Road salt causes $5 billion in corrosion damage every year to bridges, roads and cars, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It also leaches into drinking water supplies, wilts crops, kills wildlife and eats away at infrastructure, possibly including the pipes that contaminated the water in Flint, Michigan, in 2014.