Oversalting in Hamilton: Revolutionizing the salt paradigm

Our mission is to implement sustainable and best management practices regarding deicing salt usage within Hamilton Harbour. This is accomplished by combining current resources and new designs to modify current practices. This will reduce deicing salt leakage into water runoff, ultimately revitalizing aquatic ecosystems and protecting infastructure.

Our proposed solution is to modify current de-icing practices through the implementation of a new gritter design (or a salt spreader) . The new gritter design will address any uneven salting due to mechanical limitations which is responsible for the large excess amounts of deicing salts used on a regular basis.

Our main objective is to reduce the amount of de-icing salt that is used, and consequently, the amount reaching waterways, infastructure, and vegetation. There is a common misconception that more de-icing salt means better performance. However this is not the case, as most of the excess de-icing salt affecting infastructure and ecosystems come from private practices and oversalting of roadways. This solution will allow for more sustainable and cost-effective salting practices, and will be targeted mainly to the municipal government.

1. To decrease the amount of de-icing salt reaching bodies of water

2. To maintain the main purpose for the use of de-icing salt

3. To be economically viable

4. To implement a refined approach to de-icing salt without detrimental long-term consequences

Solution 1: Social Media Campaign

Solution 2: Private Sector Certification (HRS)

Solution 3: Salt Spreader Regulator

• Our final solution is a redesign of the salt spreader on the back of salt trucks.
• Our next steps will be to build a scaled prototype and implementation will work by phasing in the new designs. There will also need to be education for operators and the public of the new systems.

MacChangers allowed us to meet new people and work together to both learn about and get involved with the people of Hamilton. We learned more about the inner workings of the city and some of the organizations and their roles within the daily activities of the city. A major takeaway for us was the human-centered design process and how solutions to complex problems can be built together with the community for the benefit of everyone.We believe that our solution will be effective as it benefits all the affected parties such as citizens of Hamilton and the municipality without a tradeoff for safety, which is a very important point when considering the problem of oversalting.