Korean Tech Company Uses Starfish Skeletons for Snow Removal
A South Korean tech company is using starfish carcasses to make deicing products that it markets as being less harmful to the environment and to roads. The products are being rolled out in North America.
A certain kind of starfish, the Northern Pacific seastar, or asterias amurensis, are abundant in Korean waters, and collected by fishermen as bycatch. The starfish are usually incinerated. But Korean company STAR's Tech is taking the carcasses before they are burned to make its unusual range of products: mainly deicing powders and liquids that don't damage soil or plants, in contrast to the typical salt or calcium chloride products available on the market.
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