An eco-friendly ice melter that will protect your dog and the environment
Every winter as you sprinkle rock salt over your driveway and sidewalk to de-ice, you’re hit with a twinge of guilt. The salt burns your dog’s paws, destroys the grass, and will eventually crack your concrete. You wish there were an adequate but less invasive option for keeping your walkway ice-free during the cold months. Luckily, a sustainable, eco-friendly ice-eliminator exists. And it’s made from starfish.
Rock salt keeps our roads, driveways, and sidewalks bone-dry during the winter. But every positive has its negative. The downsides to rock salt are corrosion, potholes, plant chlorosis, and more. Wouldn’t it be great if we could combat winter ice with something that doesn’t cause so much harm to the environment and our cars? STAR’s TECH ECO-ST eco-friendly ice melter is the answer. A de-icer based on starfish, ECO-ST will keep your sidewalks dry and your environment healthy.
Starfish are impacting our planet
Despite their beauty, starfish are actually a considerable threat to aquatic life. Some species cause damages that amount to $400 million a year. Starfish can decimate populations of shellfish, oysters, clams, and even hard corals on the Great Barrier Reef. According to the Australian Institute of Marine Science, “coral cover has declined by about 50% over the past 30 years. The crown-of-thorns starfish was responsible for almost half of this decline.”
For this reason, Australia and other countries regularly deploy divers to collect starfish in an attempt to curb the population. STAR’s TECH’s technology recycles and processes predatory starfish as the main ingredient in ECO-ST. This reduces the regulatory costs of destroying the starfish. STAR’s TECH extracts the ingredients for the ECO-ST in an environmentally-friendly way.
STAR’s Tech ECO-ST Eco-Friendly Ice Melter Packaging
ECO-ST’s porous structure absorbs chloride ions
This eco-friendly ice-melter works for several reasons. First, the chloride ions are kept in the starfish’s porous structure through electrostatic attraction. So when an unstable chloride ion forms during de-icing, the ECO-ST’s porous structure absorbs it. This lets ECO-ST provide solutions to environmental problems caused by chloride ions such as plant damage and car corrosion.
This de-icer’s chemical structure has a storage release mechanism
According to STAR’s TECH, current “eco-friendly” de-icers cause algae to bloom in water due to their high concentration of corrosion inhibitors. These corrosion inhibitors can also lose their activation due to sedimentation or a build-up of micelle. So even if these de-icers are billed as non-corrosive, they could end up causing metal damage anyway.
However, because of ECO-ST’s porous structure, it can store corrosion inhibitors to prevent sedimentation and micelle from forming. After that, the chemical structure releases the inhibitors to protect steel surfaces. For this reason, this eco-friendly ice melter is 30 times more efficient in preventing corrosion. Meanwhile, the de-icer only uses one-third of corrosion inhibitors compared to other eco-friendly products. So ECO-ST’s is a better choice for the environment and your car. We all want both of those lasting for a long time.
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- STAR's Tech ECO-ST Eco-Friendly Ice Melter Design
This ice eliminator melts ice faster
This eco-friendly ice melter features a bead shape instead of the typical flake consistency typical of most melting salts. The bead shape is also coated with a unique porous coating agent. This agent makes it easier for ECO-ST to melt ice and snow. According to STAR’s TECH, the coating makes it possible to boost melting performance by 166% compared to road salt. A faster ice eliminator that is also good for the environment? It sounds like the perfect winter road accessory.
The bead shape protects your pets and your kids
But that’s not all. This eco-friendly ice melter’s bead shape means that the product is dust-free. So you and your kids won’t develop respiratory problems by inhaling the dust that’s common from most types of rock salt, which is in a flake form. Also, the ECO-ST’s bead shape does not stick to animal paws easily. Even if it does, with the de-icer’s special coating, paw burns will be minimal. That’s something even Cocoa will agree is a wonderful idea. So the next time there’s a snowy day, you won’t have to think twice about letting your dog play in it in the front yard. You can also continue your dog walks as usual.
What we love about ECO-ST from STAR’s TECH
We love this eco-friendly ice melter because it works fast and doesn’t cause damage to our cars and driveways (along those lines, you should check out our post on car gadgets you’ll need this winter). It also feels great to use a product that doesn’t harm the environment or the health of our family members (furry ones included). Finally, it’s nice to know that the product helps recycle waste generated from intrusive starfish.
STAR’s Tech ECO-ST Eco-Friendly Ice Melter
What we would love to see
Ultimately, we’d love to see ECO-ST used throughout the country and not just on home driveways. For decades, we’ve been pouring rock salt on to our streets and highways to keep traffic circulating no matter the conditions. The convenience factor is significant, but we’ve been causing harm to soil, plant, animal, and aquatic life. If there is anything that can keep life convenient but cut down on harmful environmental impacts, we’re all for it.
Where can you buy ECO-ST?
You can buy a fifty-five-pound bag of ECO-ST for $20. It is available for pre-order on Kickstarter.
