Pickling water for pickles and gherkins is far too good to throw away.
It can be a clever substitute for a certain salt, especially in winter.
It is already known that the pickling water for pickled cucumbers * and gherkins can be used in a variety of ways: You can
reuse
the brew for
pickling vegetables
, use it to season pasta and potato salads or even drink it.
But now there is news about the use of cucumber water, which shows once again that the
cucumber stock is far too good to drain
.
Cucumber water as a substitute for road salt: sustainable winter service
This type of use is particularly useful in winter when the paths are icy and slippery.
Because:
cucumber water works like road salt
!
Road salt is effective, but pollutes the environment.
It harms plants and trees.
It also gets into the soil via the seepage water and can accumulate in the groundwater.
Incidentally, the road salt is not good for your car either: the formation of rust is accelerated.
A
pilot project
in the Lower Bavarian town of Dingolfing has shown that cucumber water works just as well as road salt.
For a year
now
, the local road
maintenance department has been using cucumber water instead of molten salt
to clear the streets of ice.
The cucumber water comes from the
delicatessen manufacturer Develey
in Dingolfing, where it is created during the production of pickled cucumbers and is usually disposed of.
Instead of disposing of the brew via the sewage system, it has now been converted into 21 percent brine for a year and reused in winter service.
Also read:
Pasta water in the sink?
So you better not do this.
This is how the cucumber water becomes road salt
At the Develey company, pickled
cucumbers are
produced
in 1,000 silos
.
To do this, the cucumbers lie in brine for about two months.
The salt water remaining in the silos is usually clarified and disposed of.
The
cucumber water has been processed into grit
since winter 2019
.
Since its salt content is too low, it has to be almost doubled to 21 percent.
It is then made available to the
motorway and road maintenance
depots as required.
So far, they have produced their grit in their own facilities.
The salt is not
brought onto the roads
in a dry state, but as a
salt-water mixture (brine)
in order to free them from snow and ice.
A win-win situation: The salt water from production is no longer disposed of, but
recycled
.
And the motorway and road maintenance depots no longer have to produce their own brine.
After a year, the conclusion is positive, as reported by Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Anders Maier, head of the Dingolfing road maintenance depot, takes stock: "There is no difference to the specially produced brine and the same successes can be achieved in winter service."
In future, the use of cucumber
water should
save
up to
700 tons of salt
and up to
4.9 million liters of water
.
Also interesting:
Why potato water is too good for the drain: do not pour it away!
Cucumber water instead of road salt: doesn't that smell unpleasant?
It is not about the cucumber water as you know it from the commercially available pickle jars, but a mixture processed into brine.
The salt water is also cleaned before it is used.
The streets of Bavaria will not
smell of cucumber water
in winter
and drivers will not notice the change.
Unfortunately, due to the process that the cucumber water has to go through before it can be used as road salt, it is not advisable that you
simply pour any leftover cucumber water from the jar on the street
.
But just use it for one of the other useful recycling methods.
(mad) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
Read more :
Warning: Do not pour cucumber water down the drain any more.
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