Massachusetts loves winter road salt. But why not sprinkle in some starfish skeletons? – The Boston Globe

The product, made by the South Korean company STAR’s Tech, is called Starcrush and takes advantage of the porous nature of starfish skeletons. According to the company, the microstructure of starfish skeletons helps regulate the release of chloride from salt, reducing damage to concrete by up to 90 percent, while improving the ability to melt snow and ice by up to 66 percent. Even when you add a small amount.

Those successful results were reported during early pilots, as well as certification testing for products used on roads.

Outside testings have confirmed the efficacy of starfish. Patti Caswell, with the Oregon Department of Transportation, oversees the list of qualified products for Clear Roads, a national research consortium that does rigorous testing of road materials. STAR’s Tech topped her list in 2025, found to be 89 percent less corrosive than straight road salt.

She could not confirm whether it was also the most unusual product.

What the starfish additive is targeting is chloride — the part of salt that dissolves into water and can runoff into nearby streams and waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency sets threshold levels for chloride exposure, because it can come with consequences for the ecosystem.

Over time, runoff with high levels of chloride can stunt growth and reproduction in fish and aquatic insects, while sudden exposure can instantly kill them.

Due to storm drains that are often directly connected to bodies of water through underground pipes, anything on the street can be swept into rivers during snowmelt.

“It dramatically decreases the corrosion rate,” said STAR’s Tech founder and CEO Seungchan Yang.

Starfish may hold a quaint place in the hearts of New England beachgoers, but along the Korean Peninsula, they are, quite simply, a pest. Starfish, also known as seastars, are insatiable feeders overpopulating parts of the world. Like a tourist sidling up to a beachside clam shack, starfish will devour any shellfish within reach.

That’s true for coral reefs, too. A single Crown-of-Thorns starfish can consume roughly three-square feet of coral in a day, according to the Okinawa Institute ofScience and Technology. When outbreaks happen — as they have been in waters off South Korea — swarms with thousands of starfish can decimate a coral reef in just a few months.

Starfish also pose a problem for fishermen in South Korea, because when their nets come back filled with the five-pointed creatures, they are not legally allowed to throw them back to sea due to their impacts to the ecosystem.

Now, before you think crushing up starfish and sprinkling them on winter roads is the height of cruelty to marine invertebrates, consider the alternative. The solution in Korea has long been for the government to purchase the bycatch from fishermen and then incinerate the starfish. STAR’s Tech offers another option, taking tons of the species off the government’s hands and turning them into something useful, even after death.

By avoiding the incineration, which causes air pollution, and decreasing the amount of road repairs, STAR’s Tech claims to have further eco-friendly chops. The company has been recognized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry for its ability to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. According to the industry group, STAR’s Tech can reduce carbon emissions by more than 22,000 tons per year — equivalent to the emissions from driving 5,178 gas-powered cars for a year, based on the EPA’s emissions equivalency calculator.

Beyond South Korea, the starfish winter road solution is in use or in pilot stages in Quebec, Mongolia, and at least one Northeastern state, which the company would not name. But it’s not Massachusetts.

So just how likely is it that we’ll see it on roads in the Bay State any time soon?

MassDOT spokesman Marshall Hook said the department is “constantly looking at alternative methods and materials.” But so far, the Korean company says it hasn’t heard back from its outreach efforts to the state.

If the state doesn’t want to sprinkle crushed up starfish on the Pike, there are other salt-additive options coming from the company. “This structure can also be derived from sea urchin,” Yang said.

Japan has an overabundance of those.

Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com.