A Bavarian experiment could put an end to road users being in a pickle on icy or snowy roads.

Road maintenance companies will soon rely on pickle juice rather than traditional road salt to clear streets of ice and snow.

Last season, 326,000 tonnes of road salt were used to clear Bavaria's large road network - an expensive enterprise with a negative environmental impact. As the weather conditions grow more extreme, Bavarian officials were on the lookout for a cheaper and more ecological alternative to road salt. They found an unlikely partner: a local pickle producer.

Develey Senf & Feinkost turns 17,000 tonnes of cucumber into pickled cucumbers every year. The salty cucumber water produced in this process will soon be used for winter maintenance of Bavaria's roads. By recycling and slightly modifying the brine used in the cucumber production, the total amount of salt released into the environment is reduced along with the negative environmental impact.

According to geo.de, the Bavarian Ministry for Housing, Building and Transport expects that the regionally prefabricated brine will save 700 tonness of salt and 4.9 million liters of water this winter.