Jaoan for Sustainability (JfS) reports that the Aomori Ecological Recycle Industrial Association in Japan started manufacturing a road de-icing agent that employs large amounts of scallop shells generated as a seafood processing by-product in Aomori Prefecture. It started production in March 2007 and plans to process 6,000 tons of scallop shells annually.

Aomori Prefecture is one of Japan‘‘s major scallop-producing areas and discards about 50,000 tons of scallop shells as industrial waste every year. Industry, academic and government researchers joined forces to help promote regional industry by employing this underutilized biomass resource. Aomori Industrial Research Center, Joy World Pacific Co., New Land Development Lab., Aomori Ecological Recycle Industrial Association, and Kitasato University together developed the new de-icing agent.

Aomori Prefecture gets a lot of snow, and chlorine-based de-icers such as calcium chloride have been used to de-ice roads. These agents pose a risk to the local ecosystem, whereas the newly developed scallop shell de-icer is non-chlorine-based and eco-friendly, raising hopes that it can help solve current ecological problems caused by conventional de-icers.